It was "doubleheader Day" on Friday, a day that challenges the athlete's skills, stamina and tempers as each team plays two game on the second day of the Tournament. The weather was humid and hot and there was a constant fear of rain and thunderstorms in the weather predictions which, for lacrosse never materialized.
  
The day started with wins by Central (13-7) over the City, ADK (10-5)over Hudson Valley and Long Island (13-4) over Western. In the second games, the Valley was the winner over NYC, Central beat Western (11-8) and Long Island beat ADK 16-6.
  
After three games, Long Island and Central are undefeated at 3-0 and will play at 6:30 on Saturday. Western, Adirondack and Hudson Valley are each at 1-2 and New York City, despite playing some excellent quarters is at 0-3.
  
Central played in the opening game of the second day was a very slow start, playing nearly even ball with an intense NYC team, but came alive when needed and won 13-7. Leading the scoring for Central was Mike Fetterly with 5 goals and for NYC were Max Van Bourgondien 2g-1a, Scott Margolis 2g-1a and Anthony Adler 1g-2a. The full story is available here.
  
In many of the games so far the teams have started out closely matched, giving hope and adding excitement for each team's fans. The Adirondack-Hudson Valley game was such a game as the Valley scored three of the first four goals, but in the end, ADK overwhelmed the host team, winning 10-5. Adirondack saw more key performances from Ryan Quinn at face-off as well as Ian O’Brien in the cage and were excited that 7/10 of their goals came from midfielders. Hudson Valley again relied on Joe Marasco, who finished the game with 2g-2a. Marasco also led all players with 7 ground balls.The full story is available here.
  
On paper and pre-tournament, the Long Island versus Western game appeared to a good game of strong attack and aggressive defense. Instead it became a story about goalies, face-off men and penalties. Leading the scoring for Long Island were Jeff Cohen with 3 goals and Matthew Gibson with 2 goals and 3 assists. Leading Western’s offense was Joe Resetarits with 2 goals and Matt Pierotti with 1 goal and 1 assist. The full story is available here.
  
The game between New York City and Hudson Valley presented a very unusual pattern as Hudson Valley was held scoreless in the first and third quarters, while New York City was held scoreless during the second and fourth quarters. The City scored three goals in the first, HV scored four in the second, NYC scored three more in the third and HV scored four more in the forth. Overall the game was among the best game of the day as it was back and forth and at any point either team either team looked like the winner, but in the end it was Hudson Valley 8 and New York City 6.. Leading the scoring for Hudson Valley was Scott Morell with 3 goals and 1 assist and leading for New York City was Forest Sonnenfeldt with 2 goals and 1 assist. The full story is available here.
  
Western, who had, perhaps, the most difficult schedule of the day, facing both Long Island and Central, with only one two hours in between played a close one with Central. Central demonstrated patience and a drive that was not seen in many of their other games on Friday as they beat Western 11-8. The game was close for the first half as Central won the second, third and forth quarters by one goal each. Key to Central's win was attackman Zac Guy who had 4 goals and 3 assists. Joining Guy was Fetterly with 2 goals and Grimm with 2 goals and 2 assists. For Western, each of the three starting attackman recorded 2 goals, with Resetarits adding 1 assists as well and second year ESG midfield Cade Norris finishing the game with 1 goal and 2 assists. The full story is available here.
  
In the last game of the day, Long Island scored nine goals in the first half and added seven more in the last half on their way to a 16-6 victory over Adirondack. The game started each team taking turns scoring, but at the end of the second quarter and into the beginning of the third, Long Island scored seven unanswered goals to take an 11-3 lead. Nine different players from Long Island scored goals, with Tom Palasek leading with five. Sam Bradman led for ADK with 2g-1a. The full story is available here.
  
The full games stats, leader boards and team stats are now available from the Empire State Games Page.
  
Game times have been moved back by one half hour on Saturday to try to make sure there is enough light for the last game of the night. Western and Hudson Valley will play at 2:30, ADK will play NYC at 4:30 and Long Island and Central will play at 6:30. Check the new times on the Schedule page.
  
Finally, we want to thank Phil and Lauren Davies of Newsphoto.com for many of the photographs from Thursday's and Friday's games.
  

For more information check out the Statistics Main Page