John Jay has strong start with win over Carmel

Clockwise from top left: Porter Bysshe controls a ground ball; Peter Hill clears on defense; Dash Stewart makes his move from behind the cage; James Tesi leads a fastbreak for the Wolves against Carmel. JIM MACLEAN PHOTOS Photos

By JIM MACLEAN 

The John Jay boys varsity lacrosse team had a clear objective when the Wolves hosted Carmel on Tuesday — finish strong and close out a victory.

In the two previous games, John Jay had held a lead and let it slip away late in the second half in a pair of tough losses to Bronxville and Scarsdale. On April 7, the Wolves were determined to rewrite the ending. The Wolves started strong with eight goals in the first half, and then they controlled possession and finished it off for a convincing 11-3 win over the Rams to improve to 2-2 overall on the season.

“The last two games we played, we had them in the second half and just couldn’t finish,” explained sophomore James Tesi. “This game we came together as a team, moved the ball well, settled into our base offense and pushed well in transition. We showed a lot of grit; hope to keep it going for a strong season.”

Tesi led the way as he scored three goals for the hat trick and also had an assist, and it was a balanced attack overall with seven different goal scorers for the Wolves. Even more important than the goals scored and numbers on the stat sheet, was the team effort to control the ball and work the clock and close out the win.

“It wasn’t the smoothest execution, but the energy and effort were great,” John Jay coach Mike Bocklet said of the win. “Our goal is to have some urgency on the field and I think we did that well today.”

In addition to Tesi, Dash Stewart and Jack Hartney each scored a pair of goals for the Wolves. Dino Rajamani, Jack Casey, Holden Hughes and Riley McMahon rounded out the scoring with one goal each.

The Wolves took control of the game with four goals in the first quarter and four more in the second quarter for an 8-2 lead, and then the second half was all about defense and controlling the ball. Rajamani was credited with two caused turnovers. Porter Bysshe came up with three ground balls and had two caused turnovers, while Nick Harris had three ground balls and one caused turnover.

Blake O’Callaghan made nine saves between the pipes to wrap up the victory as the Wolves shut down the Rams in the second half along with long poled Peter Hill, Andrew Brinn, Cody Jones and Bysshe in front of him on defense.

“It’s important to get guys involved,” admitted Bocklet. “Tesi had a good game, Dino did a nice job playing both ways. He played a lot on defense and was on the field a lot. Blake anchored us on the defensive side as always and on the ride. It was a solid game.”

In the previous game on the road at Bronxville on March 31, John Jay came out strong and opened up a 5-2 lead, but the undefeated Broncos were able to rally back and hand the Wolves a 10-8 defeat.

The Broncos went on a five-goal run to take a 7-5 lead in the third quarter, but Casey scored to end the third and then Stewart scored the first goal of the fourth to even it up at 7-7. Bronxville scored to regain the lead, but Rajamani scored for the Wolves to tie it up again at 8-8. The Broncos were able to score the final two goals and close out the 10-8 win.

John Jay will try to make it two wins in a row at home as the Wolves host North Rockland on Friday, April 10.