SPORTS | THE LONG-ISLANDER, JUNE 9, 2005

Boys’ Lacrosse » Huntington 14, Jamesville-DeWitt 3

Devils’ 1st State Title Is Dream Come True

By Michael R. Sisak / The Long-Islander

ITHACA, N.Y. — Eric Posner's eyes turned glassy as he watched the scoreboard clock tick Huntington closer to its first-ever state championship in boys' lacrosse, Saturday afternoon at Schoellkopf Field on the campus of Cornell University.

"The clock was running and I was just like, 'oh man, we did it,' I actually started to cry," the senior defenseman admitted about a half-hour later, as the Blue Devils commemorated their 14-3 win over Jamesville-DeWitt (Section III, Central New York) with a meal of submarine sandwiches and milk shakes in the stadium parking lot.

'I really felt it," Posner said. "Seeing everybody, seeing my friends, seeing my family, getting all the congratulations — it feels great."

It was the kind of emotional flux that Posner and senior goaltender Charlie Paar had hoped for since the fourth grade, when they played together on a youth league team and first shared dreams of winning the state championship.

"As little kids we said we were going to do this. "We said that we were going to go [to states]," Paar said, his sandwich already finished. "There have been so many great athletes who haven't had the chance to feel this and I really wanted to do it for them."

Paar — who marched stoically through the playoff run, making nimble saves and calling defensive plays with the aplomb of a coach — teared up as the Blue Devils waited for their individual state championship medals and the team championship awards.

There were gold-colored medals shaped like the state of New York, a larger wooden plaque with a similar design — like a piece from a giant puzzle map of the United States — and a pewter trophy that resembled a life-sized lacrosse stick atop an engraved base.

They were the tokens of a dream come true.

"I told the kids, this is something for the history books. It hasn't been done in lacrosse at Huntington," coach Paul McDermott, a 1980 Huntington graduate, said.

Huntington finished the season 21-0 and, along the way, clinched the school's first county and Long Island championships since 1975. No other Blue Devils team had ever played for the state championship.

"Our emotions right now are shot, we've won three championships (including the Division II regular season title), this is the fourth one this season," McDermott said. "I feel great about it because I'm a Blue Devil."

Like his players, McDermott's euphoria turned teary for a moment, as he described how the state championship would be cherished like any other life milestone.

"It's right up there with getting married and having a baby," McDermott said, as he looked up at the section of stands where he received congratulations from his wife and three children, minutes after accepting the championship trophies.

Paar had 7 saves, including a pair of off-balance stops that prevented Jamesville-DeWitt from establishing a lead in the first quarter. He went to his knees to make a stop on a point-blank shot, and then stopped another as he reeled back.

Paar's strength, for which he was honored as the game's most outstanding defensive player, helped the defense settle and allowed time for the Blue Devils' overpowering offense to strike at will.

"We started to play great defense on them," Posner said. "It took us a little while to wake up — the whole trip has been a little rough, just traveling and sleeping in a different bed — but finally we woke up."

Midway through the opening quarter, sophomore midfielder Rhamel Bratton (2 goals) sprung off his left foot and winged a shot past Dewitt goaltender T.J. Aldrich to put the Blue Devils ahead, 1-0.

Huntington junior Scott Kocis, an all-American midfielder who had a game-high 3 goals, controlled the ensuing face off, but DeWitt wrested control and took Paar head on. Brian Karalunas, a sophomore from the school located about 8 miles east of Syracuse, charged along the goal line from the left and crashed the net. He struck Paar and popped a shot in, but the goal was disallowed. Karalunas was cited for violating the crease. DeWitt retained possession and eventually tied the game, on a converted loose ball.

Kocis did Karalunas one better, and quieted the large congregation of DeWitt fans who shouted him down. Kocis took Aldrich, the DeWitt goaltender, on with a sprint to the net on a restart and scored without contact or violation.

"It was great, especially because their whole crowd was yelling 'overrated' whenever I had the ball," Kocis said. "They were just trying to get under my skin."

Shamel Bratton (2 goals), the hero of the county championship game, followed with a leaping 15-yarder and soon the Blue Devils were in control. They outscored Jamesville-DeWitt 4-0 in the second quarter and 3-0 in the third. They retained possession for all but a few minutes in each period.

"We controlled the face offs and we were getting our shots on offense, but we could not finish a lot of them," Kocis lamented, as he crossed Campus Road after the game.

Still, the goals piled up. Seven different Huntington players scored. And Kocis was named the game's most outstanding offensive player. Along with scoring from Kocis and the Brattons, sophomore Zack Howell, junior Austin Carino and senior Billy Kingston each added 2 goals, and junior John Henry McNierney had 1.

The Blue Devils outscored opponents in the last three rounds by a combined total of 41-8. They never trailed and were tied only once, in the first quarter of the state final.

"We've been coming out hard all game," Kocis said. Following a 9-8 scare against Sayville in the Class B County Championship, Huntington topped Hewlett 13-4 in the Long Island Championship and John Jay-Cross River, 14-2 in the state semifinal. "No one expected these last three games to be this one-sided."

Following the on-field celebration and the tears, the Blue Devils players, coaches and traveling contingent of about 200 fans debriefed in the cool shadows between a hilltop parking lot and the backend of the ivy-covered grandstand at Schoellkopf Field.

Players unwrapped their sandwiches from Subway and sucked at milkshakes from Burger King. They received congratulations from friends, posed for photographs with family and basked in the glory of their moment — still fresh and framed in the dreamy surrealism of emotion and reality.

"Going out my senior year with an undefeated season and a state championship it's just incredible," Posner beamed, as he clutched the uneaten half of his hoagie. "I couldn't have asked for anything more."