Rite of passage
-
- May
- 27
Iona Prep returns its core next year in a very important season for the Gaels. (Photo by Matthew Brown/The Journal News).
So Iona Prep went through what all the top teams in the area go through today in the downstate CHSAA Class A final against Holy Trinity. It played reasonably well except for a disastrous stretch in the second quarter, but fell short 19-15.
The game was borderline “close.” There was never a feeling that Iona Prep could win. However, it wasn’t outclassed by any stretch. The four-goal margin was accurate.
The three best teams in Section 1 all took trips to LI earlier this season. Yorktown went to Ward Melville earlier this season. Lost 9-1. (The ‘Huskers did beat both nationally ranked Chaminade and St. Anthony’s.)
John Jay traveled to Manhasset earlier this season. Lost 10-8.
Rye took the trip to Wantagh earlier this season. Lost 9-2.
The other three teams will likely have their chance to get back against a Long Island team come the state semifinals; Iona Prep will have to wait until next year. And that’s typically how it goes.
There’s no shame in losing to Long Island, especially on Long Island. That said, if you want to truly get to that elite high school level, you have to get over that hump. (Exhibit A: John Jay over Huntington, 2007.)
Iona Prep has the makings of a team that might be able to beat a good Long Island team next season. It has star power in Nick Trizano, Michael O’Hagan and Myles Gillespie, all of whom will be seniors next year. But it needs to play better defense and continue to schedule as many challenging games as possible.
The Gaels are on the precipice of something great. Next year begins now.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 11:19 pm by Jeff Gold.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Share and Enjoy: Digg Google StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! | 
Print This Post
| 
Email
Iona was down 10 – 3, not "borderline" close, at which time the HT coach probably did what most coaches do: took out his starters and let younger players take to the field. IP coach would never do that. The trio you mentioned, one of them his son, keeps playing even when the score is 20-2.
Star power? You bet.
Actually Bibi the HT coach let his starters remain in the game since the score was not that far apart until the very end of the second quarter. And at the beginning of the third quarter Iona began it's "comeback" against the HT starters. And the IP coach does take his starters out when Iona is beating a team badly. He generally lets them finish the first half and then allows the other players to play. And honestly if Iona was not beating the other CHSAA teams that badly would anyone give them any respect or attention? I think not.
Ok listen, all of the Iona Prep players play for stats. Look at the games Niki Trizano scores in. 20-2, he has 9 goals. But in the games that counts he only drops 1. IP is garbage.
pelican are you a pelham guy?
pelican?
garbage?
beating lakeland and somers and losing to rye by one is garbage? are you serious? you can call them jerks if you want but you cant call them garbage. thats just ignorant.
Iona Prep is one of the least classy teams I have ever watched, they play dirty, have poor sportsmanship and the coaches leave the starters in the whole game to run up the score and boost their ranking of laxpower.com/compile great stats for his players that makes everyone think they are actually good.
Iona prep runs up the score just to look good to people like casual observer, there coaches leave the starters in the whole game to boost the players stats against teams like mount saint michael and xavarian.
Some of you guys lack the class you preach about …
wow you clearly have not watched one iona prep game and just base your ideas on the talk on these blogs. so let me begin disproving your theory. 1st of all who cares about lax power ratings. those things are trash anyway. iona prep beat somers and is ranked about 300 spots below them. second the coach dosent have to prove anything to me. when i played there, it was rare to even compete with some of the teams just in our division let alone the top in the county. being able to do that is proving enough to "the people like casual observer". third of all, the starters don't play the whole game in blowouts. many times the starters are pulled at halftime or even before. finally, they make everyone think there good? yea they do. they beat somers lakeland and lost to rye by one. thats enough for me to think there good and enough for most people who know the game. everyone needs to just accept it. iona prep is the fasest rising team in the area. arguing on these blogs isnt going make your teams any better. instead of being on here blogging, mabye you and your teams should put in the work that iona prep has, that john jay did when they were becoming the power that they are, that rye did to get to the level there at and that town did to get to the level that there at. dont think that crying and whining about how "overrated" and how "mean" the iona prep guys are is going make your teams better then them.
very true syracuse
I suggest everyone on this board read this story.
All this talk of class and respect … well, if you want to know the true meaning of each, you need look no further than what happened in upstate New York earlier this month.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=3398247
And when you're done, maybe you'll want to re-think how you look at your opponents because … you just never know.
to all the haters and the blockhead that said iona prep players play for stats thats exactly what the players are thinking about when their in the weight room at 5 in the morning lifting and running sprints. Sportsmanship because we like to body people in lacrosse dosent mean were dirty players this isint girls lax ok bro. Finaly the people that keep takeing shots at the ip coach are just rediclious if u went and saw a game this year insted of just looking at the box score you might realize that westchester has some players that dont play in section 1.
AND WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR HATERS