The first weekend of high school lacrosse in Section IV is upon us and we saw Johnson City take on Saratoga Springs in a non-conference matchup while Maine-Endwell hosted Horseheads and Notre Dame took on Oneonta.
Johnson City Halts Saratoga Springs Comeback
Johnson City was hot early and jumped out to a 7-1 lead against Class A Saratoga Springs on Saturday. The Blue Streaks battled back and got to within two goals, but the Wildcats defense stood tall and secured the 10-8 victory.
DJ Neer finished the game with 4 goals and 3 assists. Neer had a hand in each of JC’s first 5 goals and was a big reason the Wildcats were able to gain that early advantage. Troeger Lombardini chipped in 4 goals on the day for JC.
The Johnson City defense played well, anchored by goalkeeper Chris Kozloski’s 17 saves. The Wildcats did a good job limiting the Blue Streaks looks early in the game as they built their lead. Saratoga gave the JC defense a bit of trouble sniping some outside shots over their comeback bid, but they got some key stops down the stretch that allowed the offense to pull away a second time and that was all she wrote.
Neer is going to be a serious problem for every team Johnson City faces this year. He put up 34 goals and 44 assists in 2022 and after Saturday it looks like he’ll continue putting up numbers in 2023. Neer committed to D2 Mercyhurst this offseason.
Maine-Endwell Takes Horseheads In Overtime
Horseheads held a 3-1 lead over host Maine-Endwell on Saturday in each teams season opener. ME managed to battle back and the score went back and forth for a bit. Horseheads was up by 2 goals late in the game and the Spartans were forced to fight back and knot things up at 7’s in the fourth quarter resulting in overtime.
It was Tyler Matthews that hit the game-winning goal on the first possession of the extra period nabbing the win for ME.
Matthews finished the game with 4 goals and Gabe Thompson put up 3 goals and 3 assists. Senior netminder Sam Toton stopped 12 shots vs 7 goals against.
Notre Dame Opens With 19-3 Win Over Oneonta
Notre Dame got a big day out of Shane Maloney (6g, 4a, 10 points) and Kellan Murphy (5g, 4a, 9 points) on a day that saw Murphy score his 100th career point as the Crusaders thrashed the Yellow Jackets 19-3. Maloney’s big day puts him a point shy of 100 for his career.
A huge factor in the lopsided outcome was Kevin Green winning a perfect 17 of 17 at the faceoff dot for Notre Dame. He also picked up 19 groundballs.
The Notre Dame defense did a great job protecting goalie AJ Miller as he was only called upon to make 6 saves on the day.
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