SPECIAL REPORT: McQuaid Jesuit used a 7 goal third quarter to pull ahead and defeat Penfield 10-6 in tonight’s second match-up.  The game was a defensive game for three quarters with 9 of the 17 total goals coming in the third quarter.  Penfield’s Mason Schembri finished at 50% with 8 of his 10 saves coming in the first half.  McQuaid Jesuit’s Will Gordon finished at 60% with 9 saves in the contest.  Offensively, McQuaid Jesuit’s Henry Coke and Penfield’s Ethan Aust both finished with 3g to lead their respective teams.  McQuaid Jesuit moves on to face Pittsford in the Finals on Tuesday.

In the first quarter, both teams added two goals to their totals.  The scoring was back and forth with Penfield starting off the scoring.  2:30 into the quarter, senior midfielder Derek Torres scored the opener.  He drove from the top with multiple switch back rolls.  Two minutes later, McQuaid Jesuit tied up the game with an extra-man offense goal.  Senior Henry Coke scored after grabbing a loose ball off a previous save from Schembri.  Penfield went back on top 20 seconds later.  The play started off a dead ball on the near side.  Connor Goessling, took the ball and launched it to freshman long-stick AJ Theodorakakos across the field.  He grabbed the pass near the 40 yard line and drove straight to the cage, giving Penfield the 2-1 lead.  The Patriots held the lead till 0:58 left in the quarter.  McQuaid Jesuit tied up the game with Vincenzo Giangreco making a drive along the left side goal-line.  Giangreco got turned back twice in the same drive, before beating his defender on the third try.

The second quarter was a continuation of the defensive battle.  Schembri and Gordon both recorded three more saves.  The defensive pressure kept a lot of drives from culminating in shots.  Both defenses kept up the pressure for the entire 12 minutes, keeping it scoreless.  Coming out of halftime, the score remained tied at 2-2.

In a complete change from the second quarter, there were nine goals scored in the third quarter.  McQuaid Jesuit took the lead with the first goal of the quarter (less than a minute into play).  The Knights held on to the lead for the rest of the game.  AJ Quagrello scored the first goal of the quarter with an unassisted drive at the cage.  Penfield tied the game up for the third time during a flag down offense.  Sam Lublin scored off a drive down the right side; the flag was waved off.  McQuaid Jesuit responded with four unanswered goals.  Three of the goals came within a three minute span.  Christ Woodard scored with a drive all the way behind the cage and a high shot from the right side.  Coke scored the next with a sweep across the top followed by Quagrello scoring from the same spot a minute later.  The fourth goal was by John Harding.  Harding started with a drive from the top right,  Schembri made the first save with the ball going to the back right corner.  Harding came up with his own ground ball and drove to the cage from the backside.  He drove past two defenseman and finished into the back of the net with 2:49 remaining.

Penfield broke the Knight’s scoring streak with a goal from Aust (assisted by junior midfielder Adam Schembri).  The last two goals of the quarter were both scored by the Knights.  The first was a face-off fast-break by JP Gianforti.  Gianforti won the draw himself and went straight down the middle.  Fifteen seconds later, Domenic Giangreco scored with a single drive.  The Knights led 9-4 after three quarters.

The first six minutes of the final quarter were back to the slow defensive play.  Neither team scored and there were long stretches of the Knight’s holding the ball. The scoring drought was broken by Coke with a drive down the middle and a hard bounce shot that made it past Schembri.  With 4:52 remaining, McQuaid Jesuit ended up with 2 men in the box for 2 minutes (full time).  Penfield only scored a single goal during the stretch with Aust scoring his second of the night off a feed from Zach Shores. The final goal of the game was scored by Aust (unassisted) with 0:09 remaining on the clock.