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APRIL 2, 2002
In a perennial classic
hard fought rivalry game, Ward Melville’s “don’t quit” play prevailed by
a score of 12 – 11 over a tough Yorktown team played at the Huskers home field
for the Patriot’s opening day for the Spring 2002 lacrosse season. Ward
Melville’s senior attackman Jon Matsui scored the winning goal with eight
seconds to play finishing a break away play that started with junior midfielder
Michael Ward winning the face-off with
17 seconds in the game, passing off to senior attackman Peter Kasper who fired a
nifty cross field assist to Matsui. Kasper had tied the game at 11 – 11 nine
seconds earlier on a dramatic unassisted goal.
Yorktown
took it to the Patriots early and won the first quarter of play, but the WM
team settled in the second quarter and played more physically to keep the pace
with the Huskers. In one sequence, junior midfielder Ryan Preuss made a hard
check to turn over possession and senior midfielder John Keysor hustled on the
ball to get it to Jon Matsui who completed a nice feed to junior attackman David
Schwartzberg who finished with the goal.
The Patriots came out
of half time with a lot of intensity and dominated the third quarter to tie the
score at 10 – 10. Melville caught up by outscoring
Yorktown
in the quarter 5 goals to 2. For one them, Senior midfielder Jordan Funt scored
a tremendous unassisted goal in heavy traffic while getting checked by the
Yorktown
defense.
The fourth quarter proved to be a nail-biter as only 3 goals were scored.
Yorktown
’s midfielder O’Sullivan (#22) had played a great game all day scoring 5 of
Yorktown
’s 11 goals, but when it came to crunch time, the Patriots would not be
denied. Melville’s stellar senior defenseman Thomas Theodorakis, Doug Seale,
and Brian Lange wore down the
Yorktown
offensive threats. Senior goaltender Ricky Freud made some key saves in the end
with 8 overall for the game. The Melville fans erupted when Kaspar, and then
Matsui, scored the final two goals in the final minute of the game.
One young fan, Matthew
Higgins, said it well when asked who scored the final goal, with
a winning grin, he replied, “Ward Melville, of course!” Head Coach Joe
Cuozzo commented after the Patriots victorious opener, “I was proud that the
boys did not quit. They displayed true Ward Melville tradition with a lot of
character to come back to win the game like they did, but we still have a lot of
room for improvement.”
Congratulations to all
the Patriots for win #1! Next challenge against
Huntington
at home field on Saturday, April 6,
1:00 p.m.
Please be
there to support your Patriots 2002!
Go
Patriots!
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