Tottenville players wait to receive their medals after falling to Midwood in the final. (Christina Santucci)
Midwood players celebrate with their trophy. (Christina Santucci)
Blake Koch shed some tears after the last two city championship games and planned on doing exactly that after this one – just for difference reasons.
The senior attack felt the pain of defeat as Midwood lost to New Dorp in overtime and then Columbus that last two years in the title game. So ending his career with a championship left Koch choked up a bit inside after the top-seeded Hornets 5-1 victory against No. 2 Tottenville in the PSAL Class A boys lacrosse championship Sunday at Aviator Sports Complex in Brooklyn.
“I guess it’s bittersweet because 16 of our seniors are going out as winning seniors, it’s a great feeling,” Koch, who scored three times, including the eventual game winner, said. “We have to move on now. That past two years it was heart wrenching. I cried the last two and will probably cry today from the happiness that I’m feeling.”
When the horn sounded the entire team rushed junior goalie Billy Ardamis, the game’s MVP and eventually lifted him up on their shoulders. He made 12 saves, including six from point-blank range to help stifle the Tottenville attack. Each was crucial in such a tight game. The only goal he allowed was by Jonathan Cravotta with six seconds left before halftime.
“I was seeing the ball well,” Ardamis said. “The score was 2-1 at that half. Someone had to step it up.”
All-American Arthur Zych scored two of the game’s biggest goals. The senior midfielder fought off defenders coming around the crease from the back left and beat Pirates goalie Alec Meiselman to the inside post for game’s first score with 1:49 left in the first quarter. Zych was drilled in the side, felt to the floor and was feeling the effects from then on.
“I couldn’t breathe for the rest of the game to be honest,” he said. “[I] was struggling out there, but I knew I needed to be out there.”
Zych was noticeably out of sorts after he dropped a few easier passes, but he mustered up the strength when needed. With Tottenville (11-3) desperately looking for the tying goal, he took a pass from Joseph Madrazo and bounced home a shot from 10 yards for a man-up goal that gave the Hornets (14-0) a 3-1 lead with 9:01 left in the game. It started a string of three straight scores.
“It went away,” Zych said of the pain after the goal.
Tottenville coach Demetrios Haronitis was please with the way his defense played by holding the powerful Midwood offense to just five goals after falling 9-8 in overtime during their last meeting. His offense, though, was stagnant and the Pirates kept shooting low, against the scouting report, on Ardamis. Midwood defenders Chris Doyle, Leon Zavos and Khaled Mohamed toke away the shooting lanes.
“Our offense didn’t produce,” Haronitis said. “They were not moving and our offense is based on motion and kind of unraveled.”
It’s something Midwood didn’t do all season. The Hornets knew even last year that this season was suppose to be the one it brought home a title because of its bevy of upperclassmen. They didn’t let their promise go unfulfilled.
“You only get one shot,” first-year Midwood coach Andrew Shipman said. “That’s been the theme from the opening practice of the year, that it’s their year.”