Fairport Wins First Title Since 2014

May 28, 2019 - After losses in the Championship games to Penfield (9-8) last season and Pittsford (9-5) two years ago, the Red Raiders were bent on getting their first Section Five Title since 2014.  Fairport scored five goals in the second half while holding the Hilton offense scoreless to defeat the Cadets 9-4.  Key players in the success were face-off midfielder Jake Knapp and sophomore midfielder Rob Crowley.  Crowley finished with 4g on the night and Knapp finished at 8/13 at the face-off.  Both were named to the All Tournament Team for Fairport.  Knapp’s success was even more impressive based on Hilton face-off midfielder Shawn Doran’s season.  Doran finished the season at 82% with 306 wins.  Before tonight, he had never had less than 50% day at the faceoff.  Doran, for his performance throughout the Tournament was also named to the All Tournament Team.

The game was close for the first half with Fairport taking an early lead and then Hilton fighting back to take their own lead.  Doran helped with three of his wins in the second quarter and a faceoff fast-break to tie the game at 2-2, 11 seconds into the quarter.  Crowley opened up the scoring with a goal five minutes into the contest.  He scored on an outside shot with a feed from Gavin Ingalls.  Three minutes later Klay Stuver scored on a feed from Colin Peers to give Fairport the 2-0 lead.  Peers finished tonight’s game with 3a and combined with a strong Semi-Final performance against Penfield, he was named Tournament MVP for Class A.  Hilton scored the final goal of the opening quarter with Justin Mosher scoring on a single dodge from the right GLE.  Fairport led 2-1 after 12 minutes.  Doran’s goal brought the game to 2-2 at the beginning of the second.

Hilton continued their offensive press with another goal a minute and a half later.  Ben Mitrano assisted Howell with a feed from behind the cage and two minutes after that, Matthew Mojsej scored his first goal with an outside shot (assisted by Howell).  Mojej was named to the All Tournament Team for the Cadets.  Hilton led 4-2 with 8:35 remaining. The Cadets did not score again in the final 32 minutes. Fairport added two more goals before halftime to tie the game up going into the break (4-4).  Kole Herren scored with a feed from behind by Peers with 7:21 remaining.  The tying goal was Crowley’s second with a ground ball on the crease that he converted on the second effort.

In the third quarter, Fairport added a single goal.  They scored on the opening face-off with a fast-break goal by Stuver (assisted by Knapp).  In the fourth, Fairport continued the offensive press and did not let up on defense.  The fourth quarter goals were scored by Alex Nicastro, Stuver and two from Crowley.  Late in the fourth quarter, Hilton had some penalty problems, and Fairport was able to run out the clock and secure the Title.

Remaining players named to the All Tournament Team were Fairport goalie Tim Defendis, who finished with 8 saves, Fairport LSM Mason Gasbarre, Hilton attackman Brenden Howell and Hilton defender William Czebatol.  From the Semi-Finals matchups, Pittsford attackman Harrison Cross and Penfield attackman Jacob Emmick were named to the All Tournament team.  Fairport advances to play the Section Six Champion, which will be decided tomorrow.