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By TIM IRVING
For two and a half quarters, Fairport’s boys lacrosse team scored only one goal on Pittsford’s defense and senior goalie Sean Regan.
That changed on a pair of goals by Kole Stuver in the third quarter and then sophomore attack Jackson Monte scored off the opening face off in overtime and the Red Raiders won their second straight Class A title, 6-5 over the Panthers.
“That’s a really good Pittsford team, they’re gonna be back for sure, they are loaded with young kids,” Fairport coach Mike Torrelli said. “I’m just really proud of our kids.”
Trey Terzo scored the only goal in the first quarter, the Fairport senior getting free in front of the net.
From there, Pittsford went on a 4-0 run. Early in the second quarter, Quinn Whipple moved the ball on the man-up to Rex Kesselring to get the Panthers on the board.
Whipple got one of his own, picking the lower corner to give Pittsford the lead, still in the second quarter.
With just under three minutes left in the half, Shane Leonard made it 3-1 Pittsford at the break.
Harrison Cross scored with 6:20 left in the third quarter and Pittsford took a 4-1 lead before something clicked.
Stuver scored to cut the lead to 4-2 with 5:00 to play in the third. Pittsford won the face-off and despite a couple of good looks, couldn’t get the ball past McLean Ralston, Fairport’s goalie and the ball was cleared, setting up Stuver for another goal and the lead was 4-3.
With time starting to wind down in the third quarter, Whipple scored again and Pittsford took a 5-3 lead into the fourth quarter.
Billy Meagher scooped up a ground ball and found Rob Crowley to cut the lead back to one, 5-4 early in the fourth.
Midway through the fourth, the Red Raiders on the man-up, Jake Koonmen’s shot was stopped by Regan but Terzo found the rebound and knotted the game at 5 with a lot of time left but neither team could find the net.
In the huddle before overtime started, Torrelli had a plan for the face off.
“If he ran it forward, we were gonna let it go, if he ran it back, we were gonna call time out, I mean, those three poles (Pittsford’s long stick middies) are ridiculous on that wing, awesome.”
Junior face off specialist Joey Giggie won the draw and ran towards the Pittsford net, giving the ball to Terzo, who rolled right towards the front of the net and found Monte, the Red Raiders’ leading point-getter this season, behind him on the left, all alone in front of Regan for the goal.
Fairport won the 2019 title and lost in the most recent New York Class A State lacrosse final to be held and there’s also another precedent.
“We talked about all week, with COVID, the opportunity to win a title on your home field, no Fairport team’s done that before and chances are, it’s never gonna happen again,” Torrelli said.
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