Fordham Prep’s propensity for slow starts finally caught up to the Rams.
Fordham never recovered from an early blitz and fell 15-9 to host Holy Trinity in the CHSAA Class AA boys lacrosse downstate final Tuesday. Fordham Prep beat the Titans, 10-8, during the regular season, but were down four goals after the first quarter and didn’t get closer.
“They were notorious the whole year for slow starts,” Fordham Prep coach Len DeLucia said. “This time we ran out of time. Usually we can make that surge and come back, but we couldn’t do it.”
In the NYCHSAA title game, the Rams fell behind rival Iona Prep 3-0 before coming alive in the second half and rallying for a 9-7 win. Against the Titans their balanced and powerful offense never got rolling consistently. Ben Andreycak scored three times for Fordham Prep (13-7) and Chris Smith and Joe Regan each had two goals. Chris Sullivan and Jack Lee each added a goal and Matt Casella had an assist. Connor Gowan made 12 saves.
Pat Candon led Holy Trinity (13-6) with four goals and two assists. Nick Olson had three goals and an assist, Mike Plaia scored twice goals and Nicholas Susko found the back of the net twice and dished out three helpers.
DeLucia felt from when the season began his team was good enough to win the state and proved it nearly early step of the way. The Rams swept three games from rival Iona and beat Long Island powers Holy Trinity, St. John the Baptist and Kellenberg during the regular season. Unfortunately, they fell just two wins shy of their goal.
“Every time we got a rally going we just faded,” DeLucia said. “Something went wrong”
St. Dominic 6, Mount St. Michael 5: Pat McEnaney scored two goals for Mount St. Michael (15-3) in the CHSAA Class A downstate final. Dave Lulgjuraj, Mike McEnaney and Tim McDermott each added goals. Dan Ahern tallied three goals and an assists, Justin Mayr had two scored and an assist R.J. Beil added two assists for St. Dominic (11-6).