Boys lacrosse
Amherst loses tight section final rematch
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Brent Doerflein beats Hamburg goalie James Maxwell for Amherst Central's first goal in the team's Class B match-up on Wednesday, May 9. Hamburg won 7-6. Photo by John Rusac Purchase color photos at www.BeeNews.com

In a game either team could have won, Hamburg's most improved player came through.

Mark Markulis, dubbed the most improved player by his coach Jerry Severino, scored the game-winning goal with 22.2 seconds remaining in regulation to lift the Bulldogs past Amherst, 7-6, in a game played at Amherst on Wednesday, May 9. The game was a rematch of last year's Section VI Class B final won by Amherst. Hamburg won the 2006 regular season meeting, 6-5.

"Jerry Feuerstein took it around the goal, and I was up top waiting," said Markulis. "No one was on me, and I ripped it home."

"It's a set arrangement but the stick skills and ball movement that won the game was magic," said Severino. "They're like sharks that smell blood in the water."

The lead seesawed back and forth. Hamburg's Kevin McHenry scored 4:57 into the first quarter and Joe Resetarits tallied his first of three goals in the day almost eight minutes later to put Hamburg ahead, 2-0.

Amherst battled back in the second quarter to tie the game at 2-2 in a span of eight seconds. Dan Lawson tallied from Casey Rich at 6:50 for the team's only man-up goal and Rich followed from Jimmy Luthart. Lawson left the game later in the quarter with a right knee injury but is not expected to miss any time.

Hamburg appeared to take a 3-2 lead into halftime but Amherst's Brent Doerflein scored from Kurt Ebsary with 26.9 seconds remaining.

Hamburg led, 6-4, after the third quarter but the Tigers answered twice in the fourth with an unbelievable behind the-back shot by Rich (Doerflein) that beat Hamburg goalie James Maxwell and the tying goal from Dan Cooper (Chris Brunetto).

Amherst coach Stefan Henn called a timeout with 2:07 remaining and had a set play drawn up but said it was not executed on the field. Hamburg would take possession then score the game- winner.

"In the biggest game, the smallest mistakes become tremendous," said Henn.

The final stats list Amherst as winner in total shots (37-34) and shots on goal (22-21) but Henn felt his team's surges were few and far between compared to Hamburg.

"I told the kids if they follow the game plan (play patient, more ball control), we'll be fine and we did that the majority of the time," said Henn. "But Hamburg is so much deeper than us. Four of their seven goals were in transition."

Amherst's Conor McNally (14 saves) and Hamburg's James Maxwell (19 saves) each made great saves in goal to stop their opponent from rallying.

Will Africano won 11 of 15 faceoffs, which led to several extra Tiger possessions.

Severino lauded the play of midfielder Jon Domores, McHenry at attack and defender Sean Murray.

Amherst opened the week with a 13-3 win at Williamsville East on Monday, May 7. Henn felt the score was not indicative of the play on the field.

"It was an ugly - not bad blood - but sloppy," said Henn. "The final score should have been 5-3. We threw away so many balls that it was almost painful to watch."

Despite what Henn thinks, on the stat sheet his team dominated East. The Tigers fired 28 shots on net to East's 9, and grabbed more than half of the ground balls (52-29). Amherst also won 13 of 17 faceoff opportunities. Africano won nine of the faceoffs.

"Africano was the difference," said East coach Ed Greenway. "With Joe Schriever hurt (twisted ankle, senior leader), we don't have that one player to look to."

Greenway said Schriever should return to the lineup in a week.

Amherst led, 2-0, after the first quarter and 5-0 at halftime. Andrew Ross (two goals) and Jay Winzenreid scored for East. Mike Faltisco and Brad Teal each recorded an assist.

Rich (three goals, two assists), Lawson (two goals, two assists), and Doerflein (four assists) led Amherst.

The two games place Amherst with a 5-2 record in Section VI Class B but 7-8 overall. Henn thinks it's been about eight years since an Amherst team had eight losses in a season.

Amherst closes out the regular season at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 18 against Frontier. They played at Lake Shore on Tuesday, May 15 but results were unavailable before The Bee went to press.

Williamsville East

The Flames' other game was an 8-4 loss to Frontier on Friday, May 11.

East trailed the entire game and was down 5-3 at halftime.

"We don't have the athletes to stack up with Frontier, and we didn't take care of the opportunities that we had," said Greenway.

Winzenreid, Ryan Newell, Austin Weil and Derek Frost scored for East. Teal and Andrew Duggan each assisted on a goal.

Ryan Sheehan (six saves) and Matt Bradley (four saves) each played a half in net.

East (8-7, 2-4) played at Iroquois on Tuesday, May 15 but the result was unavailable before The Bee went to press. The Flames play at Williamsville South at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 17.

Sweet Home

The Panthers appear to be peaking at the right time after recording wins last week over Lancaster, 10-6, on Monday, May 7, Iroquois, 11-3, on Wednesday, May 9 and West Seneca East, 7-5, on Friday, May 11.

"To put together back-to-back league wins (Iroquois and West Seneca East) was important and shows that on any given day, we can play with just about everybody," said Sweet Home coach John Faller.

Ahead 5-4 at halftime, Sweet Home outscored Lancaster, 5-2, in the second half to record the victory.

Sean Burns' five goals paced the Panther attack. Colin Cardinale scored three times and Chris Covel and Eric Schnirel also had goals.

Goalie Chris Lyon made 10 saves on 16 shots. Jimmy Cardinale scooped up six ground balls.

The Panthers dominated Iroquois right from the start, leading 9-3 by halftime. A huge reason for Sweet Home's success came at the faceoff circle. Matt Zon, Eric Galdys and Rich Beaudet won 12 of 16 faceoffs.

Burns (three goals, two assists) and Covel (four goals, assist) paced Sweet Home. Colin Cardinale scored twice. Nick Cavalieri had two goals and an assist. Zon scored a goal. Schnirel recorded two assists.

Jimmy Cardinale scored a goal and grabbed five ground balls before leaving in the middle of the third quarter with a slight concussion. Lyon stopped 17 of 20 shots.

With Jimmy Cardinale out, Cavalieri, Schnirel and Craig Stallard combined for 21 ground balls versus West Seneca East. Lyon was huge in net, making 17 saves on 22 shots.

"He was the difference," said Faller of Lyon "He made some point blank saves."

West Seneca East was ahead, 4-3, at halftime but Sweet Home came back in the third to take a 6-4 lead.

Burns (three goals, assist), Schnirel (two goals), Covel (goal), Taylor Heald (goal), Cavalieri (assist) and Colin Cardinale (assist) contributed to the offense.

Sweet Home (9-7, 3-4) played at Orchard Park on Monday, May 14 and Williamsville South on Tuesday, May 15 but results of both were unavailable before The Bee went to press.

Colin Cardinale leads all Sweet Home scorers with 31 goals and 16 assists. Burns has 26 goals and 15 assists for 41 points. Covel has scored 23 goals with seven assists for 30 points.

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com