- The Tournament is complete. Long Island won their fourteenth Gold medal (third in a row) losing only to Hudson Valley (in overtime) on the last day. Central took the Silver medal and Western took the bronze.
  
The Winners:
The Empire State Games, in its 30th year, has a long history and is the oldest and largest of the “State Games” in the country. Men’s lacrosse was started in 1984, with the Central Region winning the gold, Long Island the silver and Western, the bronze. This year the games were held in Westchester County, in the Hudson Valley region.
  
In those twenty-four years, Long Island has won the gold 14 times, Central 7 times, Hudson Valley twice and Western once, so it is not surprising that “The Island” would be the expected forerunner for the 2007 games.
  
Before The Games:  
In the 2006 games, "Superstars" were in abundance, particularly on the Long Island team where the Bratton brothers, goalie Adam Ghitelman and attackmen Dean Gibbons, among others were already highly recruited division one prospects. This year, there were relatively few such players on any team, so that there was a feeling that although Long island was the favorite, other teams might have a chance.  
  
The Long Island Team brought twenty new players to the tournament this year, with nineteen beginning their senior year this fall. The lone exception was Manhasset's junior attackman Connor English. While last year, the offense focused on the Bratton brothers at midfield, this year's team featured a strong attack with Jeff Cohen (Syosset), John Conneely (HH Hills West) and Tom Palasek (Rock Point) all proven attackmen.
  
Cohen, who was named an All-American during the regular season, scored 94 goals last spring. Conneely, a three sport athlete, had 44 goals during the regular season while Palasek adds his feeding skills after finishing his season with 54 goals and 75 assists.
  
Even with a strong attack there were midfielders to support them including Matthew Cannone (Bethpage), Anthony Biscardi (Wantagh), Francis McDonough (Garden City) and Brian Smalley (Smithtown West). The Long Island team, having lost Adam Ghitelman from last summer, came into the 2007 games with Ward Melville's Steven Rastivo and Smithtown East's John Carrol in the cage.
  
Central came into the 2007 games with a number of talented players spread between the attack, midfield, defense and in the cage. Returning from the 2006 team were midfielders John Greely (LaFayette) and Tim Rommel (Henninger). Joining them were Ryan Barber and Luke Cometti, both from West Genesee, and Steve Ianztio (CNS). Mike Fetterly (West Genesee) was expected to lead the attack, with Zac Guy (LaFayette) joining him. Goalies AJ Fiore (Ithaca) and Jordan Marra (Baldwinsville) both came off successful seasons.
  
After last years amazingly strong defense, this year’s Western team was expected to be led by the attack. Returning from the 2006 roster was Cade Norris (HFL) in the midfield and Alex Nowak (Penfield) in the defense. Casey Rich (Amherst), Matt Pierotti (Corning East), Joe Resetarits (Hamburg) and Connor Henderson (Canandaigua) were all major players in their home teams in the 2007 season and were expected bring a strong offensive presence to the Western team. Joining Norris in the midfield were three Orchard Park players (Jeff Tundo, Matthew Ferrino and Kevin Lalley) along with Kyle VanThof (Penfield) and Marshall Johnson (Canandaigua). In the cage were Scott Bement (Canandaigua) and Jonathon Lawless (St. Francis). Bement finished the 2007 regular season with 68% and the 2nd highest save percentage in all of Section V.
  
Adirondack was at the bottom of the barrel last year in nearly all the categories and finished the games with a 0-5 record. This year's team brought together many players who worked together throughout the regular season as six players from Niskayuna, three from Saratoga Springs and Guilderland as well as two from CBA and Canton were selected for the team.
  
ADK also returned their leading scorer from the 2006 ESG roster in midfielder Sam Bradman (Canton) who had 4 goals and 3 assists last year. Bradman was joined in the midfield by Daniel McKinney (Niskayuna) and Aaron Lupa (Schenectady). Lupa had an exceptional 2007 regular season scoring 62 goals and 27 assists. Steven D'Amario (Niskayuna), who will be joined by Chris Adams and Matt Crimmins, both of Saratoga Springs was expected to lead the attack.
  
The defense for Adirondack consists of three players from Niskayuna (Steve Abba, Ryan Alden and Paul Sapia) as well as two players named to the 2nd team Suburban Council in Chris Gavitt (Columbia) and Kip Stillman (Guilderland). In the cage Adirondacks selected Saratoga Springs back-up goalie Ian O’Brien (17 saves) and Pat Sweeney (Canton). Sweeney recorded 108 saves (62.4%) last spring.
  
Brewster defenseman Zach Badalucco is the lone player returning to the 2007 Hudson Valley roster. Chris Bocklet (John Jay’s leading scorer) who was probably the best senior-to-be in the area, and who played for the 2006 team, did not try out this year, electing instead to try out for the U-19 World team. Kevin Drew, a 6-2 midfielder, also from John Jay, hurt his wrist and withdrew during tryouts. (Bocklett turned his ankle in football practice and had to withdraw from the U-19 tryout).
  
Replacing last years attack was Joe Marasco (Somers), Shane Ferguson (Mamaroneck), Scott Morell (Westwinster) and Matt King (Brewster). Midfielders Kevin Gordon (Rye) and Rocky Bonitatibus (Yorktown) were expected to be important players for this year’s team. In the cage Chris Latino came off a loss in the State finals to JD but had a 63% season for John Jay. Joining Latino was Michael Bonitatibus (Yorktown).
  
As usual, it was hard to evaluate the New York City team before the games as many players come from teams that get little or no State and National attention and in many cases it can be difficult to even identify what team they come from.
  
Exactly half of the roster were returning players; Scott Margolis (Riverdale), Forest Sonnenfeldt (Fieldston), Julian Musikant (Riverdale), Lanius Baxter (Lawrenceville), Ross Lovern (Trinity), Alex Douglas (Hotchkiss), Michael Brockway (Poly Prep) and Ben Feldberg (Dwight-Englewood). Returning for their third season were Anthony Adler and Max Van Bourgondien, both of Lawrenceville.
 
    
Performance (Offense):
Long Island won the gold with a 4-1 record, beating each of the other regions except Hudson Valley, who won in overtime on the last game of the tournament and after Long Island had already won the gold medal on Saturday.
  
The statistical data suggests that although Long Island was the winner, there was far more parity this year than in 2007 when Long Island outscored the field by more than twenty goals. This year, the winners had only eleven more goals than second place, Central, but scored them with fewer shots. Western, Adirondack and Hudson Valley each had about the same number of goals (37 to 33) while NYC scored 27.
 
Long Island was 5th in assisted goals, recording only 38% from feeds. Leading scorer, Jeff Cohen (13g) along with John Conneely (6g) and Connor English (4g) combined for 16 assisted goals (16 or 23 = 70%), but other top Long Island scorer including Matthew Cannone (5g), Francis McDonough (7g), Tom Palasek (7g) and Brian Smalley (5g) had only four assisted goals (17%). The mix of single dimensional offensive ("drive and shoot") which sometimes was successful and other times led to the loss of the ball, with more team oriented offense ("give and go" and "double and dish"). This made for some exciting moments and also explains, to some extent, the appearance of some "hot and cold" runs by Long Island.
 
Central, like Long Island won their first three games, making their head-to-head game on Saturday the gold medal game. The first quarter was close, with LI taking a 3-2 lead. In the last three quarters, Long Island took control outscoring Central 9-5. Central went on to win their Sunday game (8-7 over ADK), finishing with a record of 4-1, like LI, but the first tie-breaker criteria is head-to-head and so, with their win on Sunday, they earned the Silver medal.
  
Statistically, Central certainly looked like a top two team, scoring second in goals, and first in assists, ground balls, and shots on cage, among the six regions. Playing a team offense in which 66% of their goals were assisted, Central saw goals or assists from 13 of their 20 players. Leading the effort was Mike Fetterly (14g-1a), Rob Grimm (9g-8a) and Zac Guy (7g-4a). Guy scored on all seven of his shots on goal.
  
Western, who finished at 3-2 with both losses on "double session" Friday when they lost to both Long Island (13-4) and Central (11-8) won the bronze medal with the third best record.
  
Western led the regions in assisted goals (25/37=66%). While twelve different players made the scorebook, the Leader was Joe Resetarits with 10g-4a who ended the tournament in the number 3 spot for goals. Also leading the scoring for Western were Matt Pierotti with 6g-5a, Casey Rich with 5g-2a and Connor Henderson with 5g.
  

  
Hudson Valley had high hopes for the tournament, despite missing standouts Drew and Bocklet who elected not to tryout this summer. They suffered early losses to Central (11-6) and Adirondack (10-5). The offense struggled, placing 5th in both goals and assists produced. The team scored 33 goals, 12 of which were assisted. Joe Marasco (9g-3a), Rocky Bonitatibus (7g-0a) and Scott Morell (7g-2a), accounted for seventy percent of the scoring. Only six of the 23 goal were assisted, so that the drive and shoot offense was less successful against strong defensive teams.
  
One high note for "the Valley" was the face-off efforts of Tyler Granelli who won 40 of 63 (64%). The best moment, however, was when Morell received a feed from Granelli in overtime to give Hudson Valley a 10-9 win over previously undefeated Long Island.
  
Adirondack saw thirteen different players make the scorebook in their 2-3 run in the tournament. Leading the effort were Matthew Crimmins (8g), Steven D'Amario (6g-5a), Sam Bradman (6g-4a) and Dan McKinney (5g). Ryan Quinn was a 57% winner (43 wins/32 losses) at the face-off.
  
Adirondack's 10-5 win over Hudson Valley on Friday was a highlight for the team. They saw more big performances from 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.
  
Although New York City was disappointed in their 0-5 record, as one opposing fan said, "New York City is no longer a push-over and you can't just expect to win that game." There has been great improvement in the last two years and in this tournament they played closely (for a while) in each game. NYC was up 5-3 at the half against Central and 6-4 after the three quarters in their game against Hudson Valley. Scott Margolis and Forest Sonnenfeldt each scored 6g-1a, Max Van Bourgondien added 5g-2a and Anthony Adler scored 3g-6a.
  
Performance (Defense):
Unlike last year, where the statistics clearly picked the defensive winners, this year, the statistics are more closely arranged. Long Island did stand out in goals against, with ten less then Central. Long Island allowed 5.9 goals on average as compared to Central, who allowed 8.0 on average, but Western also ended with 8.0 gaa and Hudson Valley ended with 8.3. NYC, who took last place in gaa (9.6) was not that far from the pack.
  
John Carroll (Long Island) led the goalie performances with 23 saves on 36 shots on (64%) and Jordan Marra (Central) was second with 25 saves on 40 shots on cage (63%) although he played less time in the cage than his teammate, AJ Fiore who had 26 saves on 51 shots (51%). Marra did not play in the Central - Long Island games where Fiore finished at 43%. Western played most of the tournament with Scott Bement who finished with 19 saves on 51 shots (37%) and might have wanted to try a little more time with Jonathon Lawless who ended with 8 saves (50%), but who only played in two games.
 
As much trouble as Western had in the goal, they topped the list in clearing, at 85% while Long Island (81%) and Central (78%) followed. Western also topped the list for the number of shots on the the cage allowed (67 shots) with Long Island just one shot behind. It is clear that Western's defensive players kept the ball away from the goal, but the goalies had trouble stopping those shots that got through.
  
NYC faced more than 50% more shots on cage than Western and Long Island, and although Ben Feldberg (55%) and Michael Brockway (54%) were in the top half of goalie performances (4th and 5th), volume means goals in the tournament. NYC spent quite a bit of time in transition, which made it hard on the midfielders who had to run up and down the field in hot weather and resulted in more ball time in front of their goalies.
 

Special Teams:

There was far more disparity in the special teams stats this year. New York City topped the Extra Man Offense stat,scoring on 28% of their man up opportunities. Long Island was right behind with 27%, but had many more opportunities as NYC scored 7 goals on 18 tries and Long Island scored 13 on 35. Central scored on just under a quarter of their man up opportunities (22%), while Western and Adirondack were at 14%. Hudson Valley produced just 2 man up goals (on 19 tries).
  
On the defensive end of the field, Long Island, Hudson Valley, Central and NYC were all grouped between 84% and 81% in man down defense. Western came in at 78% and Adirondack finished at 57%. Long Island was "king of the penalties", receiving 37, while Adirondack, on the other end other scale, received only 9. The rest of the teams received between 28 and 30.
  
Long Island's stand out attackman, Jeff Cohen was ejected from the Western game and had to sit out of the Adirondack game as a result. His ejection was required after he received a second unsportsmanlike penalty for challenging an official who missed seeing a Western player hit a Long Island player with a butt end to the groin. That being said, Cohen led the tournament in penalties with 9 and penalty time with 10:00. It should also be noted that this is the second year in a row that Long Island has had an All-American ejected for talking to the officials. Last year it was Rhamel Bratton.
  
Mike Poppleton was the top face off man in the tournament, recording 53 wins (67%) for Central. While Tyler Granelli placed 4th on the number of wins, his 64% helped Hudson Valley take second in team face offs (59). Long Island's Zach Pall had 50 wins (51%) and Adirondack's Ryan Quinn won 43 (57%). It was interesting to note that 21 of 53 wins for ADK came from wins by technical. (They only lost 2 by technical). Western, on the other hand lost 25 of 54 by technical. They won only 5 by technical.
   

  
  
Observations:
There are very few comments that need to be made this year, as the scores pretty much speak for themselves. Long Island was clearly the gold medal winner, although they could have made it complete by going undefeated, and there will continue to be questions as to whether Hudson Valley really played up for the last game, or whether Long Island didn't take the game seriously after winning the gold the night before. Either way, it was, however, a well played game by Hudson Valley, and credit goes to their players and coaches. It was a great way for an otherwise disappointed host team to end the tournament.
  
Central clearly earned the Silver, on the basis of their record and their head-to-head loss to Long Island. Western certainly had a tougher schedule than Central when they faced Long Island and Central only hours apart on a hot double session Friday. Central played NYC in game one (9am) and then played Western in game 5 (4:45) whereas Western played Long Island at 1pm and Central at 4:45pm.
  
Central played good team ball and used most of the bench in their efforts. Thirteen of their twenty players made the scorebook and two-thirds of their goals were assisted. Mike Fetterly (14g-1a) was the top man on the tournament Leader Board for goals and placed second in points. Rob Grimm was the top man in points and assists (9g-8a). Zac Guy (7g-4a) scored on all seven of his shots on goal.
  
Western won the bronze by record (3-2).
  
The 2007 games lacked the numerous, well known superstars that punctuated the previous year's games but there were great plays, exciting moments and, in general, closer matched games this year.
     
Hudson Valley clearly missed Kevin Drew and Chris Bocklet who would have made them far more competitive. New York City continued to bring together better skilled players who play better team ball each year. Western continued to earn a medal on the basis of talent, a great deal of which, this year, came from outside the Rochester area and was led by Joe Resetarits (10g-4a).
  
The Iona campus venue was beautiful. Mazzella Field is located in the middle of the campus and is surrounded by buildings. The site was not without issues, however, as the lack of lights on the field required shortening the 7:00 pm games, playing 11:00 minute quarters and required starting the Friday games earlier. Black lines (which were at times hard to see) needed to be painted on the field several days before the game started, as Iona plays women's but not men's lacrosse. The staff at Iona were incredibly hospitable and went out of their way to be helpful to everyone.
  
That ends the review of the 2007 Empire State Lacrosse games. It was, as usual, an exciting time for the players, coaches and fans and well worth the effort that the New York State Office of Parks and Recreation puts into this annual extravaganza.

Other ESG Reports

  Game Statistics Menu 

     Statistics Main Page

  Game Day Reports: 

     Thursday - Western over ADK 11-6   -   LI over NYC 11-3   -   CEN over HV 11-6

     Friday: - ESG 2007 Welcome
     Friday: - LI-16 Over ADK-6   -   CEN-11 Over Western-8   -   HV-8 Over NYC -6
     Friday: - HV-8 Over NYC-6   - LI Takes Western 13-4   -   ADK over HV 10-5

     Saturday: - ESG Saturday Games
     Saturday: - ADK over City 7-5   -   LI over CEN 12-7 for Gold   -   Western over HV 6-4

     Sunday: - Sunday Games
     Sunday: - HV takes LI in OT   -   CEN over ADK 8-7 for Silver   -   Western over NYC 8-6