Mahopac Moves to 1-2 with 13-6 Victory over Haldane

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On Thursday April 6, the boys lacrosse team got on the bus, traveled to Haldane High School and didn’t necessarily make the best of the 10AM start. “We’re not used to it,” said Ryan Geoghegan, and the early going provided the proof. But just because the Indians failed to get the initial wake up call, doesn’t mean the team slept through the snooze button too.

“Those first two goals fired us up,” Geoghegan said, and Mahopac went onto a 13-6 victory.

The game did begin in the Haldane end, though, but Jordon Hankel stood tall for the Blue Devils. The home goalie put a kick save on John Kearney’s bouncer and again got low on Gavin Viglucci’s sidearm.

Possession changing hands, Haldane took their turn. Rhys Robbins backed down Danny Koch, and rolling off the positioning, his horizontal swipe whizzed past Tommy Jacobellis at 8:02.

A Mahopac penalty then opened the door for goal number two. Haldane patiently setting up and working the ball around, Liam Gaugler dropped an easy pass into Fallou Faye on the right, and he took no pause in slingshotting the ball into the net.

6:29 left in the first, a won draw by Mahopac did not have the desired effect. The Indians turned the ball over, got whistled for a penalty, and Jacobellis would stand at the mercy of Evan Giachinta on the left goal line. Still, the Mahopac goalie refused to relent and deflected the point blank overhead.

The teams then exchanging turnovers, the second alarm for Mahopac sounded when Danny Koch came swinging across the middle. In the groove, he let fly and got his team on the board with 16 seconds left in the first.

The first period passing, time was now on Mahopac’s side, and Chris Morris won the draw that would pull his team even. The actual scoring honors would go to Jake Degnan after Koch spotted the attacker to the right of the goal before the first minute elapsed.

Not ready to give in, Hankel got his team going as Viglucci made himself a lane. The Haldane goalie tracked the nearby beeline, and his deflection gave his team possession.

Then Faye played tough on the other goal line and drew a penalty at 9:39. But brute force came up short when the attacker tried to muscle his way into the crease. Mahopac converged, the ball came loose, and the tie was soon broken.

Only this time Koch went at it alone. Set up on the left, he juked his defender, weaved through the next two, and Hankel didn’t have a chance at 7:24.

A 3-2 game, another Morris draw win gave Degnan the chance to show off his moves. He received the ball on the left, shook his defender above the crease, and Hankel was again left at the mercy of just enough open space for an Indian shooter.

6:08 left in the half, Mahopac didn’t wait long to increase their lead, and the synergy was pretty sweet. From behind the net, Mike Rettberg drew a small crowd, and in making the right moves in response, Ryan Geoghegan just looked for his cue. “Once you see the back of the helmet of the defender, you’re good to go,” said the senior, and when the ball dropped inside, the attacker did his number with 5:12 left in the second period.

Giachinta, on the other hand, had no need for finesse to keep his team in the game. He started at the 30, and once bulling his way to the crease, it was Jacobellis who didn’t stand a chance.

Even so, the successful incursion was just a blip, according to Ryan Ahler. “They were no match for our defense,” he said. “We had them the whole way.”

Morris winning another face-off wasn’t a bad form of defense either, and despite the scant 37 seconds left, the time was not short for Degnan. He got the ball on the right, and after the ball clanked off both posts, the rubber found its way home for a 6-3 lead with 19 seconds left.

The lead increasing to four less than two minutes into the third, now it was Geoghegan who began from behind. No pass forthcoming, he snuck forward and made no bother of the much bigger defenders. His territory marked nonetheless, Geoghegan or Pop, slipped another goal past Hankel.

But the spark plug wasn’t done making the defense read behind the lines. In step with Liam Scanlon this time, the scoring redo was not just isolated to today. “Pop always gets open,” Scanlon assured.

The lead would grow to 11-3 on goals by Rettberg, Degnan and Brayden Torrey, which had Coach Jon Bota praising the whole attack. Building chemistry for the past three years, he concluded, “They swing that ball pretty well.

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