| Sunday - Central over ADK 8-7 for Silver |
July 29, 2007 - The second game of the day was a closely contested match up between Adirondack
and Central, the result of which determined the silver and bronze medals. The
game started off with Adirondack in control and ended with Central
making a major comeback in the second half.
Adirondack scored first just 0:57 into the game when John
Olsen scored after backing his defenseman up past the restraining
line and then planting his foot to turn and execute a jump shot that
rocketed past near side post. With 1:18 left in the quarter
Adirondack struck again when Matthew Crimmins scored on a cross-crease
pass from Sam Bradman. The first quarter ended with ADK up
2-0 against Central.
ADK kept up the pressure in the second quarter scoring
at 6:52 as Bradman hit the back of the net with a hard shot from outside
(assisted by Steven D’Amario). With 5:27 Adirondack
increased their lead, this time when Daniel McKinney drove straight
down the right side of the field and fired the shot home against
Central’s goalie, Jordan Marra.
Over the last two minutes
of the half Central scored three goals. At 1:37 Tim Rommel
drove in from the side causing a crease slide and leaving Mike Fetterly
open for his first of three goals. Fetterly finished the
2007 Games with 14 goals and led all scorers on all teams. With
0:52 remaining, Luke Cometti scored on bounce shot that went over
Patrick Sweeney’s stick. Finally, with 0:24 remaining
Fetterly scored the same way as he had only 1:13 earlier except
with the feed from Zac Guy. Going into the half Adirondack
held on to a 4-3 lead.
Adirondack scored the first two goals of the third quarter to increase
their lead to 6-4. Aaron Lupo cut to the inside and scored
on a D’Amario assist and Olsen scored his second, unassisted. Central
returned, however, and scored the next five goals to take and hold
on to the lead over the next quarter and a half. Rob Grimm
scored the first goal with a drive from behind the cage. Grimm
assisted the next goal to Fetterly as Central scored on a slow break. The
score was 6-5 ADK going into the third quarter.
Central’s John Greely scored with a hard drive from
the front and a low shot that bounced off a stick and dribbled past
Ian O’Brien
at 8:03 to tie the game up 6-6. For the first time Central
took the lead in the game with their score at 5:36 when Steve Ianzito
scored on a broken clear after intercepting an outlet pass from
the keeper. The final central goal came as Grimm looked behind
the cage and saw Rommel cutting towards GLE. Grimm hit Rommel just
as he came around the corner. D’Amario scored with
3:12 remaining on a cut from behind the cage, but it was not enough
to stop the Central comeback.
Central’s Jordan Marra played the entire game and faced 19
shots while recording 12 saves (63%). O’Brien and Sweeny
split haves in the cage. O’Brien faced 9 shots recording
4 saves (44%) while Sweeney faced 6 shots with 3 saves (50%).
One of the most interesting moments of the game occurred
at the sidelines as lacrosse fans worked to figure out the “math” involved
in determining who would get the silver and bronze medals. Before
the game began it was known that if Central won, they would win
the Silver and Western would win the Bronze based on their records. If
Adirondack were to beat Central then Central, Western and Adirondack
would have been tied with records of 3-2.
Procedure dictates
that the next criteria is head-to-head but since each team had beaten
one opponent and lost to another it moved on to the next criteria, “goals
scored against” your team. If two or more teams had
the same number of total goals scored goals against them, then the
medals would be decided based on a coin toss. With Western
having already played it was known that they had 40 goals against
and before the game started, Central was at 33 and Adirondack was
at 37.
ADK needed to win by more then four and beat Central
while keeping Central under 2 goals in order to win the Silver medal.
As the game progressed different options seemed more or less likely
and the sidelines were abuzz during most of the games, while fans
tried to figure out the “what ifs”.
In the end, however,
the simplest solution came to the front. Central won the game outright
and with the second best record, earned the silver medal, while
Western took the bronze on the basis of their lower “goals
against”.
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