It was a sucessful trip to Syracuse for Section Five as two of the three teams won their UpState Championships and punched their tickets to the NYS Championships in Middletown on Saturday. Penn Yan defeated Homer 10-8 in the Class C game and will play Shoreham-Warding River for the title. For Irondequoit, the third time was a charm as they defeated Jamesville-DeWitt 8-5. It was the third year in a row that the Eagles have played the Rams in the semi finals. The Eagles will play Garden City in the finals. In the Class A game, Fairport ended their undefeated season with a 9-11 loss to Ithaca who will play West Islip on Saturday.

The New York State Public High School Athletic Association sets the order of the games and they rotate the starting times for each of the classes each year. This year the order is C, A, B. The Class C game, featuring Penn Yan vs SWR will start at 11:00. The Class A game between Ithaca and West Islip has a planned start at 1:30 and the Class B game featuring Irondequoit and Garden City is planned to start at 4:00 PM. Time Warner TV will be broadcasting the games.

IRONDEQUOIT vs GARDEN CITY

Garden City is still undefeated at 21-0 after trouncing Yorktown, 14-4 in their semi final game on Wednesday. They have played a very competitive schedule and have won games with Mass State Champions, Duxbury (10-5), Ward Melville (12-9), Manhasset (9-3) and Shoreham-Wading River (13-4). They have won four NYS championships, the most recent in 2000 when they beat Carthage 18-15. This, however will be the third trip in a row to the finals, having lost the last two matches to Jamesville-DeWitt in 2010 and 2011. Their leading scorer, junior attackman Justin Guterding (Verbal Duke), had four goals in their semi final win. Senior midfielder Patric Berkery (Penn) added 3g and Devin Dwyer (Harvard) also had a great game with seven assists. Senior All-American goalie Dan Marino is heading off to Virginia in the fall and defenseman Eugene Berkery will attend Middlebury.

Irondequoit used a very complete game plan to control a powerful Jamesville-DeWitt in their semi fianl game that they won 8-5 on Wednesday. After coming back from a 1-2 first quarter, the Eagles held JD scoreless for over thirty minutes by mixing slow, patient ball control with quick bursts to the goal. 

Irondequoit boasts three All-Americans in the class of 2012. Joining attackman Nick Doktor, a two-time AA, are senior midfielder Gunnar Miller and senior goalie Eric Fischer who was named an Academic All-American. Six Irondequoit players signed National Letters of Intent this fall. Joining Doktor (Penn), Fischer (Binghamton) and Miller (West Point) were Andrew Cordes (Towson), Connor Enright (Mercyhurst) and Garrett Warren (VMI). They have been playing together for ten years.

Irondequoit has great depth and an excellent goalie in Fischer. Their offense can score from many directions. Garden City is also very deep and has both experience and history on their side. There is no doubt that the degree of "heart" displayed by each team will have an impact on the outcome of this game.

PENN YAN vs SHOREHAM-WADING RIVER

Shoreham-Wading River (Section XI) had little trouble in their semi final round as they beat Bronxville (Section I) 11-2. The Wildcat defense held Bronxville scoreless for the first three quarters while they scored three goals in the first half and added another four goals in the third quarter. The Wildcats are currently 17-3 with losses coming from games against Sayville (7-8 ot), Garden City (4-13) and Mt Lakes, NJ (3-5). Key players include Tim Rotanz on attack, Trevor Brosco (Notre Dame) at midfield, Chris Mahoney (Ohio State) on defense and Tyler Lutjen (Siena) in the goal. Tim Rotanz is a sophomore with 43g-41a this year. Scoring comes from many directions. Against Bronxville, scoring came from C.J. Higgins ( 3g-1a), Trevor Brosco (3g-2a), Dylan Gorman (2g) and Ryan Bray (2g). Lutjen made five saves in the game.

Penn Yan won a 10-8 contest against Homer (Section III) in a very exciting game that was well played by both teams. It was, however, a game of two halves. Penn Yan came out strong in the first half, scoring six goals in the first quarter and ending the half at 7-2. Homer, however, came back in the third quarter to make it a game, scoring four unanswered goals. At the end of the third quarter the Mustangs were up 7-6.

The last twelve minutes were as exciting as a game gets with both teams working hard for the victory. Sophomore goalie Brandon Maciejewski made spectacular saves and his brother Ryan along with All-American middie, Dylan Yonts and sophomore attackman Bradley Voigt stepped up to produce the offensive points for the win. The very disciplined Mustangs were able to control the ball late in the game to finsih with the win.

The Wildcats have been to the finals twice before and have won both times. The most recent, in 2007 and the time before (in 2001) was the year after Penn Yan won their only appearance in the Championship game. Both teams have key underclassmen and both teams are used to playing in big games with talented opponents. Earlier in this season, many lacrosse pundits would not have had either team pegged for the finals, but both have grown as the season progressed and it should be an exciting game.