BY BRIAN FEESSouthern Tier Sports Report
ITHACA — The Horseheads Blue Raiders jumped out a 5-0 lead after one quarter and a 7-0 lead in the game on their way to a 13-4 victory over Ballston Spa for the first state tournament win in Horseheads boys’ lacrosse history.
“It’s just fantastic,” senior Zack Bennett said. “The team keeps doing it. We ended the regular season with a five-game win streak and so to win the first state playoff game is fantastic and I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else.”
The sub-regional win over Ballston Spa, who was ranked 23rd in the state rankings, while the Blue Raiders were 24th, sends Horseheads to Saturday’s regional final.
“It’s awesome, these kids have been working so hard,” Horseheads coach Jason Neubauer said. “They believed the whole day, throughout the game, leading into the game, it was going to happen. That confidence they have is awesome to watch.”
Seamus Lynch started the scoring for Horseheads and Owen Johanson and Bennett helped start the offensive onslaught.
The team knew that getting an early lead, like they did in a sectional championship win over Binghamton, was key.
“It was huge,” Neaubauer said. “It was kind of like Saturday’s game, we knew if we could get out and get a big lead. Beau Briggs with his face-offs, our defense has been phenomenal this year. Our offense is playing more confident as the season has gone on. A lot of young guys have been stepping up this year and a lot of guys playing bigger roles this year stepping up. If we get a big lead we knew we had a face-off guy and a defense that could protect it for us.”
Having Briggs, who earned USA Lacrosse All-American honors this year, was a big boost in this game and all season. He was 11-for-21 on face-offs with 11 ground balls. Briggs, a Cortland commit, was going up against Will Chapman (10-for-21 on face-offs), a Hartwick commit in the game.
“It’s fantastic, he’s great,” Bennett said. “He’s 80% on the year, and he keeps it going.”
While the offense was strong in the game, freshman goalie Ben Potter had nine saves in net.
“Our defense has been our rock for years now,” Neaubauer said. “It’s no different this year. They played phenomenally and I had no doubts they would be over them and get us the ball back. And, I thought our goalie, our freshman goalie, made some huge saves tonight.”
Offensively the Blue Raiders had nine different players score in the win.
“I thought we shot exceptionally well tonight,” Naubauer said. “I don’t know the final stats, I saw on the scoreboard we had 13 goals on 18 or 19 shots. That’s phenomenal. Placing the ball was great. Zack Bennett was great, the offense was great. Not wasting shots and making them count was huge.”
For the players this win was special.
“Making states, it was just great, I can’t believe it, it’s surreal, I couldn’t dream of it any better,” Bennett said. “I think we flew out of the gates. We came out flying and we were making good feeds inside, good shots outside and doing it as a team was great.”
The early lead boosted the Blue Raiders confidence.
“The confidence boost was great,” Bennett said. “We did it in the sectional game and we didn’t let up the entire time. It was amazing to get one more win and we are onto the next one.”
Playing games in mid-June is a special feeling.
“The past couple of years we ended our season in May,” Bennett said. “Maybe the first few days of June. Going into the second week of June is just great.”
The win on Thursday is special for the whole Blue Raiders program as they made history.
“It’s awesome,” Neaubauer said. “It gives people confidence in the program. The kids have it, we have it, our parents and alumni have it, but I think maybe it gives more people confidence in this program. We are in a town with very competitive sports across them all. Our baseball and softball programs and our lacrosse programs are very competitive too. It’s great that the kids across all the sports are supporting each other.”
Bennett had four goals and an assist and Brogan Sullivan had a goal and three assists.
Lynch had two goals and an assist and Johanson had a goal and an assist.
Briggs, Keenan McCarthy, Liam Kelly, Colin Phillips and Andrew Fedele all had goals, while Ethain Bailey had an assist.
Brady Cornell, Declan Phillips, Gavin McNulty and Nicholas Syracuse had goals for Ballston Spa and Steven Fodera had an assist.
Tim Sikoryak had eight saves for Ballston Spa.
The Blue Raiders play in the regional final against Victory at Hobart on Saturday.
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PHOTOS BY BRIAN FEES
