John Jay laxmen win by committee

Dino Rajamani makes his move to the goal against Mahopac. JIM MACLEAN PHOTO

By JIM MACLEAN 

With a pair of starters on the sideline due to injury, including your leading scorer, you need other players to step up and answer the call if you want to pull out a victory.

That was the scenario for the John Jay boys varsity lacrosse team as the Wolves went on the road to Mahopac on April 23. Leading scorer James Tesi was out for the game with an injury, somebody else would have to step up. In the end, seven different players rattled the cage for a goal and that balanced attack made the difference as John Jay survived with an 8-6 victory.

The turning point came in the third quarter as the two teams were locked in a 3-3 tie at halftime, but Chase Stable scored his first varsity goal to break the tie and give the Wolves the momentum. Freshman Holden Hughes followed with a goal just 25 seconds later, and eighth grader Colin Kazanecki scored his first varsity goal to give the Wolves a 6-3 lead that they would never relinquish.

“We started off a little slow, coming in we were a little nervous, our leading scorer was out, but we got that goal from Chase and that got us all fired up,” said senior captain Dino Rajamani. “We started moving the ball around, just had to play our game and close it out. I believe in every single one of these guys, defense and offense, all the young guys, our eighth-grader Colin has really stepped up. I think everyone was a little timid at the start of the season, but we’re nine games in now and we’ve played games against great competition and we’re battle tested.”

After Mahopac scored to start the game with a 1-0 lead, Riley McMahon answered for John Jay as he fired a shot and then grabbed his own rebound and buried it for a goal. Rajamani then gave the Wolves the lead as he scored with less than a minute remaining in the first quarter.

Mahopac stormed back in the second quarter with two goals to regain the lead, but freshman Dash Stewart scored for John Jay with 1:36 left to even it up at 3-3 heading into halftime.

That gave the Wolves the momentum and they carried it over into the second half, with Stable firing up the team as he scored to give them the lead. Hughes then followed with his goal off an assist from Rajamani, and then Kazanecki followed by winning another face off and scoring.

After Mahopac finally broke the four-goal streak by John Jay to cut the lead down to 6-4, Jack Hartney answered right back for the Wolves to close out the third quarter with a 7-4 lead. Hughes then scored his second of the game to start the fourth quarter and make it 8-4. Mahopac tried to answer with a couple of late goals to cut the lead down to 8-6, but the John Jay defense was up to the challenge to close it out as Blake O’Callaghan made 10 saves in goal for the Wolves.

Of the seven goal scorers, only Rajamani is a senior as the young guns got the job done for the Wolves. Hughes led the way with two goals, while Hartney scored a goal and had two assists.

“We had some pieces not in and the first half we were just one person dodging and that was it,” explained John Jay coach Mike Bocklet. “Second half, we put Dino down on attack to get some legs and we played more unselfish offensively and that was good. Chase got a big goal, his first varsity goal, and Colin had his first varsity goal, some big momentum goals, a good win for us.”

In addition to scoring his first varsity goal, Kazanecki made a big difference on face offs as he won 14-of-18 to help the Wolves dominate possession. The Wolves were also hustling for ground balls as Porter Bysshe picked up four, Patrick Ryan and Will Berger each had three, and Cody Jones had two ground balls.

John Jay hopes to carry the momentum over this week as the Wolves were scheduled to face Nanuet on the road on April 29 before coming home to host rival Horace Greeley on Saturday, May 2.