Maine-Endwell holds off Johnson City for Section 4 Class C lacrosse title
Maine-Endwell leaned on another productive outing from Aidan McHugh and some Grade-A backstopping by Sam Toton in Thursday’s 10-8 victory against Johnson City for Section 4’s Class C lacrosse championship.
The lead was in the hands of the host team from the time Lucas Chanecka sent in a goal 2:39 before halftime. But darned if the Spartans could shake comfortably free of JC, and opponent with which JC had split a pair of regular-season contests.
McHugh’s five-goal take included three of his team’s first four, and Tyler Mathews tacked on a couple more.
How to properly celebrate this sectional title?
“We have practice (Friday) morning so, go home, eat dinner and fall asleep,” said Toton, 5 feet, 7 inches and 170 pounds worth of quality fundamentals, splendid reflexes and experience galore.
Up Next
Maine-Endwell will bring a 12-5 record into the opening round of state playoffs, 5 p.m. May 31 back on their turf. The opponent will be from Section 10.
The winner of that one will play Section 3’s champion, June 3 at Cicero-North Syracuse.
A tussle throughout
It seemed each time Maine-Endwell hinted at putting this thing away, Johnson City offered a little something to maintain the hosts’ full attention.
It was a 6-3 difference, then 6-5 when Orion Derr converted. It was 8-5, then 9-7 when D.J. Neer shook free for one.
A huge strike was provided by M-E sophomore Mathews who, with 6:41 remaining in the final period, accepted a feed while positioned on the goal’s doorstep and converted a sidewinder to make the difference 10-7.
Scrap as they continued to do from that juncture, time was clearing wasting for the Wildcats.
“I think it’s part of the rivalry between Maine-Endwell and Johnson City,” Spartans coach Andy Ewing said of that rival’s stubbornness. “We’ve played each other a lot of times, we kind of know what each other has and it’s back-and-forth, back-and-forth. They just don’t go away, they fight until the end and our kids put some fight in tonight, too.”
But as for his boys?
“I thought there was a lot of grit going on,” he said. “They definitely weren’t going to go silently. Even when they started to make a couple runs on us, we’d score back. We’d get some key ground balls, pick off a pass, and our goalkeeper came up big, he had some big saves.”
Said that M-E goalie: “They have a good team and a great goalie (Chris Kozloski) and good defense, you’ve got to take good shots to score on that goalie. We played a great game on defense, so pretty low-scoring tonight.”
Just a bit of touch
Craftiest goal of the night? Here’s a vote for Gabe Thompson when he struck to make it 5-3 with 9:05 remaining in the third quarter.
In prime position out front, Thompson finessed a fetching little softy that appeared to fool JC’s goalie_ and why wouldn’t it?
McHugh followed 2½ minutes later with a man-sized solo effort, by muscling from behind the cage to an available spot to pop one home for a 6-3 advantage.
Another significant score was supplied by the Spartans’ Carter Olenski, who gathered in a pass flipped from McHugh and made it 9-6 with 71 seconds of the final quarter elapsed.
About that M-E goalie
Toton, rather appropriately sporting jersey No. 1 on championship night, has been Maine-Endwell’s starting goaltender since he was an 8th-grader. Ewing suggested he’s been in the thick of it for all but perhaps three games since his varsity debut.
And the young man has a knack for making the upper-level, high degree of difficulty stops that prompt atta-boys from even the opposing side’s faithful.
From his array of sectional-final highlights: Midway into the fourth quarter he denied JC on back-to-back, rapid-fire attempts. The initial save wasn’t enough, as the ball squirted directly to a JC shooter. But Toton popped to his feet, gathered himself in a blink and turned away the follow-up.
“Very quick hands, he gets down on the low ones and up on the high ones_ even some at the same time. He had a great night tonight,” the coach said. “He’s the veteran in there, kind of runs the show,” the coach said. “Along with Gabe Thompson, my midfielder, he came up as an 8th-grader, too. They came up as kind a package deal and have kind of run the show since.”
Said Toton: “There were a few shots I should have saved but I feel like I played a pretty good game today. It’s a whole team effort on defense, we’ve all got to work together to do well.”
Etc., etc.
** Game 1 in the regular season went to Johnson City, 7-6 on April 18. The rematch resulted in 15-5 Maine-Endwell success May 13.
** Toton, regarding what’s ahead: “We have a special team, a lot of good kids on this team. Section 4 lacrosse isn’t really heard about in the state, it’s usually Rochester, Syracuse and Long Island. It’d be nice to make a run and prove who we are.”
** The Wildcats closed with a 12-6 record.
This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Maine-Endwell holds off Johnson City for Section 4 Class C lacrosse title
