Upstate New York started their New England takeover this Saturday as the NCAA men’s lacrosse semifinal took place at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
The Cornell Big Red punched their ticket to the final with a 11-9 win over Penn State University, a team coached by former Hobart College player and Cornell head coach Jeff Tambroni. The Syracuse Orange weren’t able to manage the same, falling 14-8 to the Maryland Terrapins.
While Orange fans and Statesmen fans may be upset seeing no connections to either team in the championship, chins should be up. Maryland surprisingly boast the most connections to upstate New York of any team in the final four.
Their five year starter in goal, Logan McNaney is a Corning native despite playing his high school lacrosse in Connecticut. Thomas Gravino graduated from Victor High school and plays short stick defensive midfield for the Terps. Jonah Carrier, a graduate of Irondequoit, is the backup face-off specialist. To top it off, head coach John Tillman is a Corning, NY native, a Cornell alumni and a former assistant coach with Ithaca College.
At the end of Memorial Day, no matter who lifts the trophy, Upstate New York wins.
Cornell’s Seniors come full circle
In 2022 the National Championship stage was set, Maryland had a a chance to do the unthinkable. Post a perfect season while playing eight nationally ranked opponents before the NCAA Tournament. Their final stop was Cornell in the Championship.
The Terps dominated, but Cornell’s freshmen remembered.
CJ Kirst, Michael Long, Hugh Kelleher, and West Genesee alumni Ryan Sheehan all started in that game for the Big Red. Now they are the top seeded team in the country and they were one overtime loss away from a perfect season.
CJ Kirst proved he was the best player in college lacrosse through the regular season. Not it’s time for the Big Red to prove they are the best team in college lacrosse.
There’s no way around it, the story wrote itself for the ultimate Cornell redemption. They can avenge their own classmates, they can avenge the ’09 team that lost in the same stadium and they can do it against a Cornell alumni.
Syracuse is Back! Almost…
The Syracuse Orange found their way to Championship weekend for the first time since 2013. Unfortunately for Syracuse, they couldn’t find their way out of the first half on Saturday. The face-off battle ended too close for John Mullen to give the Orange an edge and Maryland was able to dominate the time of possession. The first half ended with Maryland leading 8-2.
While Syracuse had proven to come back from big deficits in the tournament already this year, Maryland proved to be too good to pull out of the hole.
“…Unfortunately we just didn’t have our best game today,” Syracuse head coach Gary Gait said near the end of his opening statement. ” We dug the hole a little too big, especially against a team that controls the ball. Makes it really difficult to make a comeback on them when they shoot in maybe the last 10 seconds of a shot clock…”
While the Orange fell and didn’t come out with the performance fans likely expected, the opportunity of making it to the final four was unquestionably important to the returning players next year.
“I think it will go a long way,” Gait said. “Last year in the quarterfinals it really was something that these guys came back and said we’re not gonna lose that quarterfinal again and they found a way to get the job done there. I know they’ll put their foot down and say ‘we’re gonna commit even more to this team to make sure that we get to the final and we get a chance for the national championship’ and I know they’ll be one of the most committed teams in the country (next year) to get that done.”
Monday’s final starts at 1:00 p.m. on Memorial Day. Either Cornell will take it home for New York or Maryland will take it home, and some New Yorkers will be national champions.
