We’re several months away from the start of the 2009 varsity lax season.
But it’s never too early to get a consensus on what teams will be the best.
The Iona Prep Gaels hope they’ll have plenty more to celebrate next year. (File photo by Frank Becerra Jr./The Journal News)
So let’s hear your choices.
Be sure to weigh in on some teams that could have surprising seasons as well.
Here’s a quick look at the defending champs:
• Yorktown (Class A): The ‘Huskers, who won their 27th sectional title in the last 29 years this past season, seem well-equipped to win yet another. Yorktown returns Johns Hopkins-bound senior midfielder John Ranagan, attackman Kevin Interlicchio (ranked 12th among juniors nationally by Inside Lacrosse), Towson-bound defenseman John Fennessy and Michael Bonitatibus, who is now a senior after being the first freshman to start in goal for Yorktown since 1967 as a freshman. Yorktown is eligible to compete in Class B next season, though no formal decision has yet been announced.
• John Jay (Class B): The Indians’ 47-game win streak against Section 1 teams ended this past season in a double-overtime 9-8 loss at Rye. Will their run of four straight sectional titles come to an end next year? John Jay, after all, loses all-time leading scorer Chris Bocklet as well as fellow all-America Kevin Drew, who are both ranked among the top 10 incoming freshman in college lax this season. Also lost to graduation are Drexel-bound defenseman James Whalen and Binghamton-bound goalie Chris Latino. John Jay will rely on senior midfielder Will Stewart, its lone ESG representative, as well as defenseman Geoff Stearns, who is bound for Lafayette. John Jay also returns middie Harrison Silver, has a budding star in rising sophomore Mike Daniello and a promising goaltender in junior Robert Maher.
• Rye (Class C): ESG participant Cole McCormack could emerge as a big-time college prospect. The rising junior had 13 ground balls and won nine of 13 faceoffs in the state semifinals against Mount Sinai. The Garnets, who have won four straight sectional titles, also return one of the state’s top defenders in Donald Keough as well as attackman Rob Santangelo and midfielder Pat O’Callaghan.
• Iona Prep (CHSAA): The Gaels, coming off a breakthrough season, should be back for more, with the return of Drexel-bound Nick Trizano, who led the nation in scoring last season, as well as standouts Michael O’Hagan, Miles Gillespie and Gus Guido.
• “Recruiting updates for the Class of 2009”:http://boyslacrosse.lohudblogs.com/2008/06/21/daily-recruiting-updates-for-class-of-2009/
• “Recruiting updates for the Class of 2008”:http://boyslacrosse.lohudblogs.com/2007/08/12/late-summer-recruiting-update/
• “Recruiting 101: Some questions and answers”:http://boyslacrosse.lohudblogs.com/2007/08/22/recruiting-101-some-questions-and-answers/
121 Comments
“Cuse”,
Hope you had a good Summer as well.
What’s your pre-season guesstimate on the Town/Rye game?
Ha ummm ytown- A lot
Rye- A little..
KI and Ranagan are gonna absolutely tear it up next year, but the problem lies in the rest of the team, I personally do not see much past them, Rocky Kurpis and Froats are hard to make up, The defense will be solid as well but d middies? Who’s going to play that position, I hope for the best but this year’s team will need more than 2 people scoring. Last year yorktown struggled to find a 3rd attackmen, this year it will struggle to find 2nd and 3rd midfielders and 2 attackmen to help KI
It will be nice to see who gets AA this year out of these guys
D midies will be strong in my opinion, senior Codie Hanlon was a starter last year, Senior Ryan Tirelli started early in the season will be strong, sr Mike Goldberg a good football player and strong athlete who was hurt last year during the lax season could fit well in that role then you have a host of others who will be possible, what about all these strong defensive poles coming up as Jrs from the jv program Burke, Bonitatibus, I may have missed others, can one of these guys play shorty, why not? It would be a shame not to get these guys on the field for some experience. Ytown will be a defensive MONSTER next year, Guaranteed.
Lax
I see Casey having at least 40 goals next year, KI and Ranagan will increase their output by about 10 to 15% (hopefully more), but you can’t ask for more than that from them because everyone will key on them all season without Rock, Kurp, and Froats to worry about (these 3 had approx 120-130 goals between) remember they both had great numbers last year. Casey gets an additional 20, You’ll need approximately an additional 100 goals coming from some combination. Lieberman will have to “get bold” and get to the cage, along with others. I know that their JV team had very little scoring punch, no major net finders coming from the JV. Thank god their defense will afford many opportunities for new offensive players to get many chances.
4 AA’s next year for Town, KI, Ranagan, Fenessey, Mike B.
Stew,
Yorktown will experience a decline because:
The defense had more depth last year than they will have this year.
Also, the d-middies will need to step up and be consistent.
The offense will certainly feel the loss of Rocky, Kurpis and Froats.
They will be a very good team but not as talented as last year.
Yorktown defense maybe strong but besides ranagan who else do they have on offence.
first laxer,
Interlicchio, Casey and Lieberman will be their attack (le last two split playing time last year).
The real issue will be additional offensive production at middie. Otherwise it will enable teams to devise a game plan to neutralize Ranagan.
Lax fan
Agreed middie was the strong suit last year. This year could be an issue. Ranagan is great as is KI the rest are all role players no matter what people think.Both will be doubled
I don’t think next year’s Yorktown squad will be weaker. They will just be different, with their strengths spread out over more areas than last year.
Last year you basically had a good defense try to push the issue whenever they could, use explosive offensive players to go nuts in transition to run up big leads. And that worked fine.
But Yorktown also played very good 6-on-6 defense when they had to … the game vs. Syosset is the perfect example. Sure, they lost, but they only allowed 7 goals and held the all-time leading goal scorer in L.I. history to basically nothing by his lofty standards.
I think next year you will see Yorktown win more close games, though I believe many of the games will be close because their offense simply won’t be as prolific as it was last year. I mean, from a Yorktown historical standpoint, with last year’s team you’re talking about one of the best offensive clubs they’ve EVER had.
No, I think defense and goaltending will be what makes the difference next season. Between Ranagan, Interlicchio, Casey, Lieberman, some as of yet unnamed guys who step up, they’ll score enough. They’ll still be better offensively than every team in the section, even with Marasco and Tyler P still around. They just won’t be as explosive as last year. That doesn’t mean they won’t score when it matters. Ranagan and KI will be big when Town needs them to be big, or, hence, why would they be All-Americans? Or AAs to be?
Don’t worry about d-middie, especially in September. You find a few kids who have great athleticism but are not quite up to snuff skills wise to get a normal run on one of the top 2 lines and, voila! ... you have your d-middies.
Slacrosse … I think Yorktown goes undefeated in Section I play next season, making it two straight years having pulled off the feat. You can pretty much bet they’ll be playing Ward Melville, Darien, Wilton, someone from the MIAA or IAC, St. Anthony’s, Chaminade, Section 2 and will go .500 or thereabouts against them because they’ll play the majority of those games early on.
So, in other words, it will be a typical Yorktown season. They’ll lose a few non-section games early and everyone will freak out and say “Town is down” or “everyone else is just better, Town is the same” or “It’s early April” or “the king is dead” and all the other usual crap you hear during a Town season ….
And then they’ll win the section again and get to Hofstra, where all bets are off …
Syracuse,
Well put, I’m with you.
Inexperienced D got stronger as year went on last year, this year will be experienced, offense will be weaker earlier this year and hopefully get stronger as year progresses.
Syracuse,
I agree with most of your assessment. The only comment I have a difference of opinion on is the d-middie situation.
Yorktown did not run 2 lines of d middies last year and historically has not done so (whether the talent was there or not). They had a few phenomenal athletes on their team last year who could have contributed a d middies but were seldom used.
Thus, Hanlon and Tirelli are the frontrunners for the spot.
Finally, the past few seasons showcased LI’s power and depth. West Islip’s talent far surpassed ours but we hung tough for 3 quarters till they wore us down. Syosset’s talent was at best equal to ours (I would dare say less than ours) and they too benefitted from a late surge as we ran out of gas.
The only depth yorktown was missing last year was a solid 3rd attackmen, other than that they were completely fine, one of the better squads i have ever seen actually when on, if a 3rd attackmen was there, they would have won that last game as well, but thats in the past now.
Cool. I agree with everything you guys said. I remember just a five-man middie rotation back in the day. Actually, you were allowed multiple poles back then so d-middie wasn’t the glorified situational position—a.k.a. left-handed reliever—it is now. I played a ton of it in college and, honestly, it’s a blast because you’re always on the field and get to knock the snot out of people on occasion.
I wish the season started tomorrow.
Cuse,
Yeah I wish Town could particularly get at the MD team later in Town’s season (was Mcdonough’s 10th game I think?). Still playing an MIAA team is tough at any time but would definately put Town on a more “level playing ground” with many more games under its belt.
During the Town Syosset game kept saying, “wow Sy not showing much vs what Nisky showed a few days earlier vs Town. Town definately the “better” team vs Syosset (think Town basically ran out of steam).
Of course best if both Towns offense and defense would be stronger then last yr but if one has to be “better” I’ll take D every time which is case with Town. While their O may not be quite as strong as last yr will still be very potent to say the least and combine that with a very strong D and you have at least as strong a team as last yr and maybe even better!!
Doesn’t mean I’m not hoping for an upset in the Rye game!!!
slalacrosse,
I appreciate your optimism regarding this upcoming season for Yorktown. However, I think that this year’s team, although competitive, will not be as strong as last year’s team.
Last year’s team went undefeated in the section(probably can again this year). However, they played extremely well out of the section against nationally ranked teams (beating Chaminade and St. Anthony’s on LI and Niskayuna at home, losing to Ward Melville on LI, McDonough in MD, and Darien at home). They went 4-3 against nationally ranked teams (including JJ in the section). I doubt that will happen again this year.
Furthermore, you don’t replace the production and leadership from that senior class from top to bottom:
Aversano, Bonitatibus, Farrell, Froats, Gonzalez, Gunther, Kurpis, Liu, Miao, Palladino, Tarkin and Zimmel.
Interlicchio and Ranagan should be one of the most lethal combo in the Nation (12th ranked junior and 35 ranked senior) this year but have to make sure to include everyone else around them…If they do their job Ytown should be very VERY dangerous…
y town should be good but alot of key players missing ki should had some trouble producing for himself.
Mahopac is wining the section no doubt
Agreed