Rye Garnets crush John Jay laxmen's hopes in Sectional semifinal, 11-2

Dash Stewart JIM MACLEAN PHOTOS

By JIM MACLEAN 

John Jay had high hopes entering the Section 1 Class C boys lacrosse playoffs. The Wolves cruised past Byram Hills in the quarterfinals on May 27, with an impressive 14-6 victory at home, and that meant they would be on the road to face No. 1 seed Rye in the semifinals on May 30.

During the regular season John Jay had suffered a 10-7 setback to Rye, so the Wolves had hope as they entered the semifinals, knowing that if they played their best game they could compete and give the Garnets a battle.

However, Rye had other ideas. Rye was determined on their home field to advance to the finals, and the Garnets came out strong and dominated from the start, cruising to an 11-2 victory to advance to the championship game, ending John Jay’s season as the Wolves finished at 10-8 overall.

“Rye is excellent, a really strong team and it would have taken a lot on our end to get them,” admitted John Jay coach Mike Bocklet. “They didn’t make any mistakes and we made some early and they capitalized. We couldn’t win a face off and were not generating anything on offense, they have a good defense and they were pretty solid to hold us.”

Peter Hill

Jack Casey

James Tesi

It was a slow first quarter as both teams stood tall on defense, but Rye finally broke the ice and scored at the 6:30 mark, and added a second goal two minutes later for a 2-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Then the Garnets picked it up in the second quarter, scoring a pair of goals just 11 seconds apart and building a 6-0 lead at halftime.

In the third quarter, Rye scored four more goals, including two in the final 34 seconds, one with just two seconds left on the clock to make it 10-0 after three quarters.

It was 11-0 when James Tesi finally broke through to get John Jay on the board as he scored off a pass from Dino Rajamani. Riley McMahon followed with a goal for the Wolves off an assist from Tesi to make the final score 11-2.

John Jay goalie Blake O’Callaghan was busy all game long as he finished off his amazing five-year varsity career with 19 saves in goal for the Wolves. It was not the finish O’Callaghan was hoping for as he moves on to play in college next year at Princeton after recording 800 career saves for the Wolves.

“Amazing career, the program’s all-time best goalie, he proved it with the stats and also with his style of play,” Bocklet said of O’Callaghan. “He’s such a great kid both on and off the field. I’m excited to watch him at the next level at Princeton.”

O’Callaghan was one of only six seniors on the John Jay roster, including fellow captains Rajamani and Peter Hill, as the Wolves worked all season long with a young roster that included seven sophomores, three freshman, and an eighth-grader taking faceoffs.

“The senior leadership was unwavering and we’re going to miss those guys,” Bocklet said of his senior class. “We lose some really strong leadership, but hopefully, some of the younger guys have learned from them. This is good experience in these type of games and they can build off it and we’ll be back.”

To get to the semifinals, John Jay dominated in the 14-6 win over Byram Hills in the quarterfinals. Freshman Dash Stewart led the way with four goals and two assists, while senior Jack Casey scored four goals in his final home game for the Wolves. Tesi had a big day with two goals and four assists. Rajamani scored two goals and added an assist. Nick Harris had a goal and an assist, freshman Holden Hughes scored a goal, and senior Patrick Ryan had an assist.

John Jay girls fall to Rye, too, 14-1

It was a rough two days of lacrosse for John Jay fans on the turf at Rye as the day before the boys semifinal game, the John Jay girls varsity lacrosse team came to Rye on May 29, as the number-four seed Wolves faced the top-seeded Garnets in the girls Class B semifinals.

Dillon Hall scored in the first quarter, but that would prove to be the only goal of the game for John Jay as Rye pulled away for a 14-1 victory to advance and the Wolves finished the season at 11-7 overall.