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Central made a strong statement in the opening contest of the 2006 Empire State Lacrosse Games with a 19-4 rout over Adirondack in their round one game at the stadium field at RIT.
Senior midfielder Josh Amidon (Lafayette) who had a good face off effort with 5 of 8 tries, scored the first goal for Central (unassisted) at 9:12. On the ensuing face off Adirondack’s Josh Knight took the face off and ran right to the goal, scoring an unassisted tying goal just eight seconds later. Central then scored then next twelve goals in a row, when Adirondack added three more while Central made sure that everyone saw playing time.
With great depth in the midfield, Central used three units to control the Adirondack team at both ends of the field while ADK’s often errant passes were picked off by both close defensemen and middies from the Central team.
Attackman Jeremy Boltus, who with 40g-27a, was second in scoring this spring behind teammate Jack Venditti at Baldwinsville, ended the game with a team high 6 points (4g-2a). His first goal of the game (unassisted) at 6:30 put Central ahead for good. After a brief slowdown, middie, Jovan Miller from Christian Brothers Academy scored (unassisted), and was followed, less than a minute later by another unassisted goal by Boltus.
Nick Lococo (CNS) who led last year’s ESG tournament scoring with 3g-12a, scored the first assisted goal of the game on a pass from attackman Jack Harmatuk who scored 62g-27a last spring for Christian Brothers Academy. Harmatuk scored again at 2:32 (unassisted) and midfielder Nick Blumer who was second in scoring behind Lococo at CNS (50g-11a) finished the quarter with a feed from Lococo.
Sophomore middie John Greeley (Lafayette) scored an unassisted goal in the first minute of the second quarter. Venditti scored an attack goal with a feed from Lococo which was followed less than two minutes later with a goal by middie Joel White (Cortland) on a pass from Boltus.
Almost seven minutes elapsed before Greeley scored the first man up goal on a Boltus feed at 1:44. The Central man up unit scored 2 goals on four tries in the game while the Adirondack man up unit scored 1 goal on four opportunities. Lococo ended the half with an unassisted goal at 0:27 to send the game into the break with Central up 12-1.
The third quarter saw five penalties divided almost equally between the teams with each team scoring one extra man goal.
Joel White scored an unassisted midfield goal for Central sending the game into running time at 10:53. Adirondack middie, Nick DiSarro, one of ten players from Niskayuna (Second II champions), scored an unassisted man up goal at 7:51 ending ADK’s dry spell and sending the clock in to regular time. Chris Hall (Niskayuna) added another for Adirondack (assisted by Nisky teammate Steve D’Amario) at 7:38.
After a penalty for too many ADK players on the field, Boltus scored in man up on a pass from Amidon, but ADK came back less than a minute later when senior middie Sam Bradman (Canton) scored an unassisted goal for ADK taking the score to 14-4 for Central. That was the lost goal Adirondack would score.
Central scored two more goals in the third quarter (Boltus from Harmatuk and Tim Rommel from Venditti) ending the third quarter with Central up 16-4.
With the clock in running time for the last quarter, Tully senior defenseman Tim Henderson scored on a fast break clear and a pass from Greeley. The combinations of Harmatuk from Venditti and Lococo from Venditti ended the game with Central the winner 19-4.
Adirondack goalies Pat Corbine from Canton (6s/7ga=46%) and Nic Rende from CBA-Albany (5s/12ga=29%) split time in the goal. Guilderland’s senior defenseman Gregg Raffensperger had a number of dramatic defensive plays for ADK and led the take away effort (2 takes). Chris Hall led the ground ball effort for ADK with 7 and also won 7 of 14 face offs. 
West Genesee goalie John Galloway led the Central goalie effort with 6s/1ga=86% and played half the quarters, while Oswego’s Bay Stoker recorded 4 saves while allowing 3 goals against (57%) during the other two quarters. Central won 14 of 26 face offs with Amidon taking 5 of 8 and Desko and Miller each adding 3 of 4. Lococo won the ground ball contest with 5, while Boltus and Greeley followed close behind with four each.
A lmost three hundred people were in attendance for the opening game. Although the Central defense saw relatively few strong challenges, the offense saw extraordinary balance as more than half the team made the score book. Six different midfielders scored in the game, led by White with 2g and Greeley with 2g-1a. The strong attack produced 19 of 30 points, led by Lococo (3g-2a) and Boltus with 4g-2a. Galloway and Stoker each made a couple of excellent saves, but the defense generally kept the shooters a good distance from the cage.
Scoring for Adirondack were DiSarro (1g), Bradman (1g), Knight (1g), Hall (1g), D’Amario (1a).
Scoring for Central were Amidon (1g-1a), Blumer (1g), Boltus (4g-2a), Greeley (2g-1a), Harmatuk (2g-2a), Henderson (1g), Lococo (3g-2a), Miller (1g), Rommel (1g), Venditti (1g-3a), White (2g).
Central plays Hudson Valley at 9:00 AM and Western at 3:00 PM on Friday. Adirondack will face Western at 11:00 AM and New York City at 5:00 PM.
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| Game 2: Long Island-9 vs Western-6 |
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(July 27, 2006)- In the 3:00 PM game, the home town Western team played a surprisingly close game with the perennial favorite Long Island team; as they played a 3-3 first quarter and were tied at the end of the first half (4-4). Long Island pulled out in front in the second half, outscoring Western 5-2 to take the 9-6 win in their first round game at RIT.
It took the Bratton brothers just one minute to get themselves on the Long Island scorebook. The twin midfielder All Americans from Huntington, who recently made a verbal commitment to Virginia scored 5 of the 9 Long Island goals, starting with Rhamel’s unassisted goal at 11:30 and Shamel’s man up goal (assisted by Chamindade attackman Ryan Young) just 30 seconds later.
Webster Schroeder attackman, Grant Catalino who ended the game with 3g was the first to score for Western. His drive from the right front gave him a one-on-one with Long Island’s standout goalie, Adam Ghitelman at 10:13. Penn Yan defenseman, Michael Manley scored on a fast break clear and a pass back from Rush-Henrietta middie Justin Rose (1g-1a) at 6:53 to tie the game at two.
After a Western slashing penalty at 6:40, Shamel Bratton score the second of his three man up goals (unassisted). Catalino ended the quarter with another unassisted goal for Western and the quarter ended in a 3-3 tie.
As expected the Western defensive unit which featured goalie RJ Wickham and defensemen Manley and Drew Palmer (Webster Schroeder) was the strongest part of the Western game. Wickham made a number of dramatic saves and pitched the ball out on pinpoint clearing passes to defensive players but had some difficulty when trying to get his midfielders involved in the clears.
Shamel Bratton received a one minute stick penalty at the top of the second quarter but Western was unable to score and in fact, ended the day 0 for 8 in man up play.
Catalino was the first to score in the second quarter when, after dodging four Long Island players, scored (unassisted) at 8:34 giving Western a 4-3 lead and bringing the local fans to the their feet at the RIT stadium. Long Island came back to tie the game at four when Garden City attackman Dean Gibbons scored on a pitch from Huntington attackman Zack Howell. Gibbons, who set a Long Island boys single-season record with 101 goals this spring, finished the season with 135 points, two less than a record set by Paul Basile in 1985. Gibbons finished today’s game with two goals on four shots on cage. The game was tied at four at the half time break.
Fairport attackman Mike Danylyshyn gave Western another lead with his unassisted goal at 7:03 at the top of the second half and the Western team held the lead until Long Island scored three in a row, starting with Shamel Bratton’s man up goal at 3:19, followed by Corey Winkoff’s unassisted goal at 2:39 and a Gibbons from Young combination at 2:24. The run gave Long Island a 7-5 lead at the end of the third quarter.
Justin Rose gave the Western team a spark of encouragement when he scored with an inside feed from Danylyshyn at 8:14, but it was Western’s last goal of the game. Long Island added a goal by Rhamel Bratton (unassisted) at 4:08 when he beat Manley on a race from one end of the field to the other. Al Kohart scored an open net goal at 2:57 to give Long Island a 9-6 win in round one.
The game was punctuated with numerous pushes and heated words and 17 penalties were assessed in the game (8 for Western and 9 for Long Island). Shamel Bratton scored all three of his goals in man up drives and was the only LI player to score in man up.
Adam Ghitelman who was a NYS tournament MVP and was Nassau player of the year as well, is returning for his second year in the ESG tournament. His long list of accomplishments makes him one of the top returning seniors in the country and although his 50% save record in this game (6s/6ga) is far below his season average at Cold Spring Harbor this year, the All American demonstrated his dramatic stopping ability and crisp clearing passes throughout the game. Huntington goalie Sean Brady, who helped his team go 22-0 and win the NYS Class B championship did not play today, but will undoubtedly demonstrate his talents later in the tournament.
Long Island shooting was uncharacteristically off the mark as 30 of their 54 shots were off goal. Shamel Bratton, who led the team in shots taken with 16 only hit the cage 5 times (but scored on 3 of those 5 shots). The face off race was marginally won by Long Island with 10 of 17. James Carrol won 6 of 9 and Al Kohart won 3 of 5 for Long Island. Corning East face off man Carter Bloor took all but one of Westerns face offs (7 of 16).
Penn Yan goalie RJ Wickham ended the game with 15 saves and 9 goals against (63%) and he played all but 1:07 minutes when he was removed for a slashing penalty at the very end of the game. Corning East goalie Thomas Holden finished the game for Western.
Scoring for Western were Catalino (3g), Danylyshyn (1g-1a), Manley (1g), Rose (1g-1a).
Scoring for Long Island were R Bratton (2g), S Bratton (3g), Kohart (1g), Gibbons (2g), Winkoff (1g).
Western will play Adirondack at 11:00 AM and Central at 3:00 OM on Friday, while Long Island will play New York City at 1:00 PM and Hudson Valley at 7:00 PM. All games on Friday will be on the artificial turn field at RIT.
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