Aquinas Institute lacrosse is looking for a new Head Coach for the 2022 season.
The Little Irish went 8-7 last year after they lost to Haverling in the Class D Tournament. In 2010 they were the Class C champs.
Those interested should send a resume to Anthony Bianchi at abianchi@aquinasinstitute.com.
The National Federation of State High School Associations in association with USA Lacrosse has announced fifteen rules changes for the 2022 scholastic season.
There are significant changes to the faceoff procedures, which eliminate the "motorcycle grip" and require that players start with two feet on the ground (no kneeling). Faceoff specialists must play the ball first before playing the man, and wing players cannot check faceoff combatants until they are no longer crouching.
There are new rules for the "mercy rule" which now, in the second half, once there is a twelve-goal differential, the clock goes to running time, and continues as running time for the rest of the game, even if the differential is less than twelve goals.
Protective cups or pelvic protection is now required (not recommended) for all players.
For the complete rule changes see the Federation release.
If you are looking for information about Bath, you will need to look a little farther. As the school district created their new brand, they are now asking everyone to use Haverling instead of Bath.
The use of the name honors an early resident farmer, Adam Haverling, who gave up much of his farmland to insure a "truly superior school that would serve all the people of the community".
In order to make the changes, the SportsFive team change over 6,800 records in the various databases.
[Note:] If you find one that we missed, let us know.
The East United-Eastridge team, which was joined in 2020 was able to play their first games this season. Bishop Kearney scheduled six games but elected to not play in the tournaments at the end of the season. Midlakes joined with Red Jacket and so there remained thirty-five teams in the section. There were 885 players on the final rosters, down almost 250 players from 2019. Penfield carried the largest roster with thirty-eight players and Spencerport had the smallest with fifteen.
There were four classes for the sectional tournaments. Two of the four top seeded won their championships. Fairport (#1) beat Pittsford (#3) 6-5 in overtime in Class A. In Class B, Thomas (#3) defeated Canandaigua (#1) 6-5 and in Class C, HF-L (#3) defeated Livonia-Avon (#1) 19-10. In Class D, Penn Yan (#1) won their twenty-fifth sectional title with a 16-2 win against Pal-Mac (#3).
The first game of the shortened season was played on April 29th, when Penn Yan defeated Livonia-Avon 15-5. The last regular season game was played when Canandaigua beat the Mustangs 9-3 on June 5th. The 247 regular season games were played and helped to determine the league championships. In Monroe County-D-1 it was Victor (5-0). In MC-2, Thomas (5-0) took the championship and in MC-3 Spencerport (5-0) was on top. Penn Yan (10-0) won the Finger Lakes title and the GRALL was inactive with some teams included in Finger Lakes schedule (but not in championships or awards).
At the end of the year, the Section V Head Coaches selected the post-season award winners including their All-League players. Then, after reviews of over twenty-two nominations, they selected six USA Lacrosse All-Americans and six All-Academics. Named All-Americans were Sam Bennett (Canandaigua), Logan Callahan (Victor), Cal Lambert (Victor), Ayden Mowry (Penn Yan), Eric Platten (Canandaigua), and Ethan Ruller (Webster Thomas). Named USA Lacrosse All-Academics were Harrison Cross (Pittsford), Max Ettinghausen (McQuaid Jesuit), Tyler Griffin (Penn Yan), Connor Mesh (Spencerport), Jackson Nieman (Canandaigua), and Connor Winters (McQuaid Jesuit). Spencerport Head Coach Bill Buttaro was named Coach of the Year from Section V and the Bob Scott Award winner was Zahmir Jones
from East United-Eastridge.
The Monroe County Division 1 Player of the Year was Logan Callahan. Ethan Ruller was the Division 2 Player of the Year and Connor Mesh was Division 3 Player of the Year. Nominees for the Bob Scott Award were Jackson Nieman (Canandaigua) and Zahmir Jones (East-United-Eastridge).
The Section V and USA Lacrosse Bob Scott Award winner was Zahmir Jones (East-United-Eastridge).
The Monroe County Coaches of the Year were Dan Stone (Victor - MC1), Rob Ruller (Thomas) and JJ Schembri (Penfield) in MC2, and Bill Buttaro (Spencerport) who was also named USA Lacrosse Coach of the Year.
London Booker (East United-Eastridge) was named MC-d3 Man of the Year.
The Finger Lakes Players of the Year were midfielder Mekhi Mahan (Penn Yan), defenseman Tyler Griffin (Penn Yan), goalie Jack Acker (Wayne) and attackman Ayden Mowry (Penn Yan) who was also selected as the Finger Lakes Player of the Year.
Because of the short season and the many quick decisions that had to be made within days, the GRALL teams did not play league games. The lack of a league of their own, left many players with truly extraordinary performances without recognition or awards. In an effort to bring some small recognition to some of these players, we put together, with the help of some coaches, a "SportsFive Independent All-Star Team".
East United-Eastridge (Class A), Gates Chili (Class B), Batavia (Class C) and Penn Yan (Class D) were awarded the Steve Morgan Sportsmanship Awards by the Genesee Valley Lacrosse Officials Association.
After the regular season, the Section V tournaments were conducted at the higher seeded team home sites. Fairport(Class A), Thomas (Class B), HF-L (Class C) and Penn Yan (Class D) were the Sectional Champions in 2021.
There were no All-Tournament Teams this year (at the request of Section V) but there were MVPs for each class. Selected for classes A, B, C and D were Jackson Monte (Fairport), Ethan Ruller (Thomas), Colt Green (HF-L) and Max Brodmann (Penn Yan).
The SportsFive Players of the Year were faceoff specialist Logan Callahan (Victor) in offense and Ethan Ruller (Thomas) in defense. The Sportsman of the Year was Will Hand (Penfield).
The final games of the year are usually the New York State Tournament but for the second year in a row, the NYSPHSAA chose not to run the tournaments.
At the end of the season forty-one seniors have made college commitments. They will join the over three hundred players from Section V who are currently playing at all college levels.
| Section V Tournament | |||
| Section Five Brackets | |||
| Mon - Out brackets | Wed - Quarters | ||
| Fri - C/D Semis | Sat - A/B Semis | ||
| Mon - Class C Finals | Mon - Class D Finals | ||
| Tue - Class B Finals | Tues - Class A Finals | ||
| Year End Awards | |||
| All Americans/Academics | Monroe County | ||
| Finger Lakes | Players of the Year | ||
| Team Sportsmanship | |||
| Players of the Week | |||
Sportsfive Media has been the leading scholastic website for Section V lacrosse for over twenty years. With over 1.4 million page views in 2019, there are over 3,500 stories on the boys site, and over 7,000 player profiles.
In this shortened season, we covered 277 games, took 36,000 pictures covering all thirty-five teams and travelled more than 1,600 miles.
during the short season more than 38,500 discrete users have viewed more than 721,400 pageviews and to date we have received thirty-six donations. We certainly need your help.
Through our arrangement with PayPal we can accept donations on-line. If you have a PayPal account, donations are secure and easy. If you don't have a PayPal account you can create an account, OR simply and safely use your credit card. Of course, you can also send a check.
In this crazy year, we at SportsFive Media are thankful for the opportunity to watch and report on scholastic lacrosse this year.
Because of the short season and the many quick decisions that had to be made within days, there were a number of teams, including the GRALL teams that did not play league games. The Finger Lakes League graciously invited several of the GRALL teams into their schedule this year, an act of great generosity. However, the lack of a league of their own, left many players with truly extraordinary performances without recognition or awards.
In an effort to bring some small recognition to some of these players, we have put together, with the help of some coaches, a "SportsFive Independent All-Star Team".
Finally, we wish to acknowledge the great work of Livonia-Avon Head Coach John Sciera, naming him our "SportsFive Independent Coach of the Year".
The full list of award winners is available here.
[Note: 6/21/21: There were errors in the initial data - we believe ther errors have now been corrected.]
Sam Bennett (Canandaigua), senior midfielder/FO Logan Callahan (Victor), senior midfielder/attackman Cal Lambert (Victor), junior defenseman Eric Platten (Canandaigua) and senior goalie Ethan Ruller (Thomas) were named USA Lacrosse All Americans from Monroe County.
Senior attackman Harrison Cross (Pittsford), senior attackman Max Ettinghausen, senior midfielder Connor Mesh (Spencerport) and senior defenseman Jackson Nieman (Canandaigua) were selected as USA Lacrosse All-Academics.
The Monroe County Division 1 Player of the Year was Logan Callahan. Ethan Ruller was the Division 2 Player of the Year and Connor Mesh was Division 3 Player of the Year. Nominees for the Bob Scott Award were Jackson Nieman (Canandaigua) and Zahmier Jones (East-United-Eastridge).
The Section V and USA Lacrosse Bob Scott Award winner was Zahmier Jones (East-United-Eastridge).
The Monroe County Coaches of the Year were Dan Stone (Victor - MC1), Rob Ruller (Thomas) and JJ Schembri (Penfield - MC2), and Bill Buttaro (Spencerport) who was also named USA Lacrosse Coach of the Year.
London Booker (East United-Eastridge) was named MC-d3 Man of the Year.
Links to the Monroe County Division 1, Division 2 and Division 3 lists.
The All-Star list is out recognizing the Finger Lakes League players for the 2021 season.
The Finger Lakes coaches selected Penn Yan attackman Ayden Mowry as the Finger Lakes Player of the Year.
Other Players of the Year were attackman Ayden Mowry (Penn Yan), midfielder Mekhi Mahan (Penn Yan), defenseman Tyler Griffin (Penn Yan) and goalie Jack Acker (Wayne).
Ayden Mowry was also named a USA Lacrosse All-American.
The Finger Lakes Coach of the Year was Greg O`Conner (Marcus Whitman). The Finger Lakes Assistant Coach of the Year was Chris Redington (Penn Yan) and Man of the Year was Chet Harmon (Newark).
The full list of Finger Lakes award winners is available here.
The Head Coaches of Section V recently considered players who had been nominated for All-American and All-Academic awards.
The coaches selected Sam Bennett (Canandaigua), Logan Callahan (Victor), Cal Lambert (Victor), Ayden Mowry (Penn Yan), Eric Platten (Canandaigua), and Ethan Ruller (Webster Thomas).
Selects as All-Academics were Harrison Cross (Pittsford), Max Ettinghausen (McQuaid Jesuit), Tyler Griffin (Penn Yan), Connor Mesh (Spencerport), Jackson Nieman (Canandaigua), and Connor Winters (McQuaid Jesuit).
Zahmir Jones (East United-Eastridge) was selected as the Bob Scott Award winner and Spencerport Head Coach Bill Buttaro was selected Coach of the Year.
Read more about the players and the awards....
*+The 2021 Section V Player of the year honors were announced at the end of the Section Five Class B Championship game. The winners, all from Class B teams were Logan Callahan from Victor, Ethan Ruller from Webster Thomas and Will Hand from Penfield.
Offensive Player of the Year
Victor senior faceoff specialist, Logan Callahan was named the Offensive Player of the Year. Taking 282 faceoffs this season for the Blue Devils, Logan won a remarkable 89%, winning 242 and losing only 40. In both their Schroeder and Pittsford games he won 100% (15-0 and 22-0).
Coach Dan Stone says: "Logan is a two-time Under Armour Upstate NY team member. He is on the 2021 watch list, was an Inside Lacrosse Invitational All Star Team member and had an 88/100 evaluation score. He is a National Honor Society member with a 96.5 GPA."
Logan has been selected as a USA Lacrosse All-American by the coaches of Section V.
Logan committed early and will play at Johns Hopkins next fall.
Defensive Player of the Year
The senior goalie started for the Titans as freshman and over his three seasons has made 339 saves. This season he was instrumental in his team’s 15-1 season, recording 124 saves for a 63% average. In big games he has made big saves and in his game at Victor, scored his first goal on a coast-to-coast clear.
Ethan`s father and Head Coach Rob Ruller says: "When you have a college program like Cornell say to you `that they see so many great young men come through their program, but he is above and beyond our expectations as a young man` you realize how lucky you are to have had the opportunity to work with him and enjoy his passion for the craft. I am truly blessed to have had the opportunity to coach him. He has changed our program forever."
Ethan has been selected as a USA Lacrosse All-American by the coaches of Section V.
Next fall, Ethan will be attending Westminster Prep in the fall and then he plans to attend Cornell University to study and play lacrosse.
Sportsman of the Year
Coach John Schembri says: ‘Will Hand is a captain and one of the best leaders I have had the opportunity to coach in my career."
"He has had terrible luck in his lacrosse career. He broke his hand early his sophomore year, lost last year due to COVID, and broke his ankle this year midway through the season."
"He impresses me with the way he carries himself every day. He could have taken a negative spiral; however, he is so positive with all his teammates and despite not being able to play he conducts himself with character and class."
"He is one of the best human beings I know. He truly honors the game."
The Genesee Valley Lacrosse Officials Association (GVLOA) handed out their annual Steven R. Morgan Sportsmanship Awards to one team in each Class.
The award is giving to a team that exemplifies sportsmanship at the coaches’ level, the players level, and the fans level. Officials vote after every game by the men at the game.
The Class A award was given to East United-Eastridge and Head Coaches Jim Tillotson and London Booker. The Class B award was given to Gates Chili and Head Coach Cam Gormel. The Class C award was given to Batavia and Head Coach Jim Dillon and the Class D award was given to Penn Yan and Head Coach Brian Hobart.
Fairport defeated Pittsford in overtime 6-5 tonight to secure their 10th Sectional Title and second consecutive title (2019 win over Hilton 9-4). This is the fourth straight tournament that have seen the Red Raiders in the finals. With tonight's win, the Red Raiders moved into third for the most titles by any program in Section Five. The game winning goal was scored off a face-off fast-break. Joey Giggie won the draw and raced up field, he offloaded the ball to Trey Terzo who fed inside to the crease and found Jackson Monte open for the goal.
In addition to the game winning overtime goal, Monte led his team in scoring (4g-2a) in the Semi-Final game vs. Hilton. 
As a result, he was named Class A Tournament MVP at the conclusion of the ceremony. At the final ceremony in Thomas' win over Canandaigua, the Section Five season awards were also revealed. Offensive Player of Year was presented to Victor face-off midfielder Logan Callahan. Defensive Player of the Year was presented to Thomas goalie Ethan Ruller and Sportsman of the Year was presented to Penfield's Will Hand.
The first half of the game saw a lot of slow back and forth between the two teams. Fairport scored the only goal of the first quarter with Brendan Riley driving inside and finding Trey Terzo open after the slide. The Red Raiders held the 1-0 lead into the quarter break. In the second quarter, Pittsford added three goals (one in man-up). Rex Kesselring scored with a feed from Quinn Whipple with 9:35 remaining to tie the game at 1-1. 
Whipple then added the first of his 2g-2a with a drive along the top of the restraining line. He also assisted the third goal to Shane Lenard. Pittsford led 3-1 going into the halftime break.
In the second half, the scoring kicked off with each team adding two in the third and Fairport adding two more in the fourth to force overtime. The Panthers were held scoreless in both the first and fourth quarters. Harrison Cross scored with a hard outside shot to put Pittsford up 4-1 (their largest lead of the game). Kole Stuver responded with back-to-back goals to put Fairport back within one. Both were hard midrange shots. The final Panther goal of the night was scored by Whipple with a feed from Cross. Whipple finished with a hand in four of the five Pittsford goals.
In the final quarter, Fairport scored both of their goals within the first four minutes. Rob Crowley scored the first and Terzo scored the second. Terzo's goal was scored during man-up after he grabbed the loose ball on the crease and finished into the back of the net. The game was back and forth in the final eight minutes with both teams having a shot at the goal; however, the game stayed tied into the end of regulation. [BOX SCORE] More images are available in the gallery.
*+
Webster Thomas never trailed in their 6-5 win over Canandaigua tonight to secure their fourth Sectional Championship and the first since 2016. In 2018, freshman Ethan Ruller started in the cage for Webster Thomas and helped take his team to the Sectional Finals. After a double overtime loss to Victor, the Titans have spent the last two seasons looking to get back into the Finals. Tonight, Ruller was the major factor in the victory and was named Class B Tournament MVP. In addition, during the award ceremony, he was also recognized as Section Five Defensive Player of the Year. Also recognized at that time were Offensive Player of the Year (Face off midfielder Logan Callahan from Victor) and Sportsman of the Year (Penfield’s Will Hand).
Ruller was one of the major reasons for Thomas’ victory. The senior goalie kept Canandaigua scoreless for three quarters. During the 36 minutes, he faced multiple shots and at times seemed to stand on his head to make the save. Although the Braves added five goals in the final quarter, it was not enough to force overtime. With time counting down, Ruller got control of the ball behind the cage. In the final seconds he threw the ball up field and gave the Titans the win.
Thomas opened the scoring with three goals in the first quarter. David Petz, Joe Russo and Nathan Hoban each scored one goal for the Titans. Hoban, Petz and Cade Spencer each recorded an assist. All six goals for the Titans were assisted. The 3-0 score at the end of the first quarter held into halftime. In the third quarter, Thomas added their fourth goal with a feed from behind the game from Ryan Prine to Evan Pashalidis. This came during an unsettled situations where Canandaigua’s Jack Faiola had just made back-to-back saves. The Titans held a 4-0 lead going into the final 12 minutes.
In the final quarter, Canandaigua’s offense was finally able to get past Ruller. They scored 0:32 into the quarter with Cam Tallman scoring with a feed from Sam Bennett. 
Three minutes Later Dom Comella scored, unassisted with an outside shot from the top left. Thomas’ final two goals of the game came from Anthony Shura and Pashalidis (assists to Spencer and Hoban). The Titans were up 6-2 with three minutes left on the clock.
The final three minutes of play were the most exciting. Canandaigua kept up their offense and scored three goals in the final three minutes. Jaxon Grant scored with a long range shot from the outside. Spin Blazak scored from the inside after a feed from behind by Tallman with 2:28 remaining. With 0:42 remaining, Tallman pulled the same trick, this time with Cormella scoring his second. Thomas won the last draw but lost the ball and gave Canandaigua one more shot at the cage. However, they could not capitalize on the chance. [BOX SCORE] More images are available in the gallery.
Note: During the half-time break, the team and coaches from Gates Chili were honored for sportsmanship by the GVLOA.
Senior A/M Devon Gerhardt scored the first two goals for Penn Yan and after Quinn Nolan scored from the next faceoff, Ayden Mowry scored with an assist from long stick defenseman Tyler Griffin to give the Mustangs a 2-1 first quarter. That was as close as the game got, as Penn Yan score five unanswered goals in the second to go into halftime up 8-1.
The second half saw a Pal-Mac goal by Damian Knaak who cut to the crease and received the ball from Keegan Hoesterey. It was the last goal for the Red Raiders as Penn Yan added eight more goals.
Although faceoff specialist Quinn Nolan won an impressive 20/21 draws for Pal-Mac, the Penn Yan defense, sparked by the extraordinary efforts by senior defenseman Mason Kuver turned back the Red Raiders many times. They consistently knocked down passes and scored take-aways, keeping the ball from goalkeeper Griffin Emerson who had 8s/2ga (80%) in the cage for the Mustangs. Emerson`s favorite clearing pass was to senior midfielder Mekhi Mahan who throughout the warm day on the turf, seemed run as hard at the end of the game as he did in the beginning.
Leading the scoring for the Mustangs were Max Brodmann with 5g-1a, Ayden Mowry with 4g-1a and Devon Gerhardt with 3g-1a. Brodmann was named the Class D tournament MVP. [BOX SCORE] More images are available in the gallery.
Third seeded HF-L came out strong in the first quarter and never really looked back in their 18-10 win over top seeded Livonia-Avon. The Cougars never trailed in the game, although the Lakers kept the game close with a few runs throughout the game. After the standout performance in the Geneva vs. HF-L game and 4g tonight, Colt Green was named Class C Tournament MVP. In addition to the boys win this evening, the HF-L girls lacrosse program also won their Section Tournament on Saturday with a 19-7 win over Newark-Midlakes.
The Cougars started off the game with five of the first six goals. Huck Thayer scored the opener with a feed from Braydn Trybuskiewicz. Trybuskiewicz finished the game with a team leading 4g-3a. The second goal of the game was scored by Green with an outside shot from the top right. HF-L kept up the pressure with another goal. This time, during and extra-man attempt with David Brassie scoring from a cross-feed pass from Trybuskiewicz. The Lakers got on the board with a drive from behind the cage by Jackson McEnerney with 5:06 left in the first quarter. This was the first offensive opportunity for Livonia-Avon. The Cougars added one more goal before the end of the quarter. With 0:52 left on the clock, Ian Kane scored during a slow break. HF-L led 4-1 after 12 minutes.
At the start of the second quarter, the Cougars scored the opener with Trybuskiewicz’s first goal. During another EMO he scored with a feed from Brassie. Livonia-Avon stopped the game from getting away from them with three of the next four goals. It was the first of two times, that they had scoring streaks in attempts to keep the game close. McEnerney scored his second with another drive from behind. Once again this was their first serious offensive attempt of the quarter. Green scored his second goal of the game with a feed from behind the cage (by Brassie). Face-off midfielder Matthew Connor came helped the Lakers with back-to-back assists. 
The first was a bass to the left flat to Roman Volpe and the second was a face-off fast-break to McEnerney. Connor had an extremely strong game for the Lakers and finished with 2g-3a. After the fast-break goal, the Lakers had pulled within two (6-4) with 5:34 remaining on the clock.
HF-L scored the final two goals of the quarter to take an 8-4 lead into the half. They had three more to the open the third quarter. Chase Perryman and Green scored two each with Trybuskiewicz scoring the fifth. With 6:14 remaining in the third quarter, HF-L led by 7. At that point, Livonia-Avon began their second scoring stretch to keep the game competitive. They scored four of the next five to pull back within four. The main factor was again Connor. He scored back-to-back unassisted goal with an outside shot at 5:53 for the first goal. 
The second was an impressive single player effort off the draw. After losing the initial control, he kept up the pressure on the HFL face-off midfielder and forced the ball loose. He then ran down the ball and forced the ball into the cage. The third quarter ended with HFL leading by 4 (12-8).
In the fourth quarter, HF-L pulled away with five unanswered goals. The Cougars led by nine (their largest lead of the game) with 2:41 remaining. The final goal of the game was McEnerney’s fifth of the night. In the cage for Livonia-Avon, Matthew Beachel finished with 6 recorded saves.
In 2005 HF-L lost to Penn Yan in a combined Class B/C Tournament. Penn Yan moved on the the NYS tournament in Class C and HF-L moved forward as the Section V team in Class B. [BOX SCORE] More images are available in the gallery.
