John Jay rallies to pull out a victory over Lakeland/Panas

Nick Rinaldi makes his move at midfield for John Jay. James Bysshe wins a face off for the Wolves. Goalie Blake O’Callaghan clears for John Jay in victory over Lakeland/Panas. Brendan Corelli beats a double team and heads to the goal. Jim MacLean Photos

By JIM MACLEAN

A stick went flying through the air, and all of a sudden you could feel a change on the field. You could see it with a lonely stick floating where it was not supposed to be separated from its player, and you could hear it, the loud clang of metal, and the subsequent roar on the John Jay sideline.

Sometimes one big play can fire up a team, and Brendan Corelli provided it for John Jay.

And then he provided another on the other end.

With 2:26 left in a tie game, Lakeland/Panas had just grabbed a loose ball and grabbed hold of momentum with possession, but Corelli was not going to let them out of the zone. The senior attack man usually provides the highlights on offense, but this time it was his defense that made the difference as he wound up for a stick check, knocked it clear out of the hands and sent it flying to give John Jay the ball. Corelli wasted little time at the other end, racing from behind the cage to beat his defender and bury the shot for what proved to be the game-winning goal at 1:46. That goal capped off a big rally for the Wolves as host John Jay pulled out the 6-5 victory over the Rebels on April 11.

“They took it away from us and that made us mad on attack, so you want to ride and get gritty and I saw the stick and winded up,” Corelli said of his takeaway. “That check got us going, we were fired up, and I got the ball and just ran my hardest past my guy, saw the cage open and let it fly.”

Corelli provided the highlights to finish it off, but it took a lot of big plays on both ends for John Jay to pull it off after a slow start.

Lakeland/Panas came out strong and opened up a quick 3-0 lead. John Jay fought back with a pair of goals from James Tesi and Corelli to make it 3-2 at the end of the first quarter.

However, Lakeland/Panas answered with two more goals to start the second quarter to make it 5-2.

John Jay needed a spark and Dino Rajamani provided it as he wound up for a long shot and buried it to give the Wolves hope trailing 5-3 at the half.

Rajamani did it again, scoring his second goal of the game off an assist from Corelli, and that was the only goal of the third quarter as the Wolves trailed by one heading into the fourth quarter.

Once again, Rajamani drilled a long shot for his third goal of the game to tie it up at 5-5 with 7:41 left to play.

“We needed a big play and I just stepped in and ripped it and hoped for the best and got it,” Rajamani said of his first goal. “That was a big win, we definitely needed it after the last two games. We really came together, defense played amazing, offense played great, we got the win, but we still have a lot of games ahead and we have to keep working hard to get better.”

John Jay continued to take control of the game as James Bysshe won another face off as his brother Porter Bysshe scooped up the ground ball. The brother duo helped the Wolves control possession for most of the second half, and goalie Blake O’Callaghan and the defense did its part shutting out the Rebels for the entire second half.

Then Corelli came through with his game-winning heroics. O’Callaghan was credited with 19 saves in goal, including a big one with 20 seconds left to play as the Wolves held on for the win.

With the win John Jay improved to 2-3 overall as the Wolves had lost two games in a row to Yorktown and Ridgefield.

“We definitely needed it for morale and it wasn’t easy,” said John Jay coach Mike Bocklet. “Defense played really well second half, went to the zone and that slowed them down. The Bysshe brothers were really tough on face offs and got us a lot of extra possessions that we needed. We grinded on offense and got enough but we need more and we’re working on it. Dino and Corelli pulled us through on that end, but we’ve got to clean it up.”