Rams Conclude Season With Close Playoff Loss to Stepinac

The Prep’s season came to an end this past week as the Rams lost to Stepinac twice in their regular season finale and the CHSAA “AA” playoff semi-finals. The first game was a back and forth dogfight with most of the contest being only a one goal game. Although Fordham dominated the faceoff X and won the groundball battle they came up just short losing 9 - 8. The second game was also back and forth early before Stepinac took a big five goal lead into the half. But the Rams dug deep, continued to own the faceoffs, and fought back to within two in the fourth quarter before running out of time and falling short 12 - 10.

Highlights include Thomas Gies ‘23 (Rye) going 38 for 43 (88%) on faceoffs and picking up 34 groundballs. Lewis Moore ‘23 (New Rochelle) and Charlie English ‘23 (Port Chester) each had four goals in game one and game two, respectively. Moore ‘23 and CJ Sowarby ‘21 (Manhattan) both notched their 25th career points. Sean Miller ‘21 (Rye) tallied his 150th save, finishing with 162 on the season, the most by a Prep goalie since Connor Gowan ‘12 stopped 202 in 2012.

Congratulations to Patrick Cunningham ‘24 on notching his first career point and kudos to coach Cipriano for continuing his professional lacrosse career and playing for the Premier Lacrosse League’s Waterdogs Lacrosse Club

Check out this recent piece on our friends at Bronx Lacrosse from News 12 (here). We’re happy to host several Bronx Lacrosse players at our lacrosse camp in July and look forward to when we can start hosting the boys again for our alumni clinics.

Stepinac Recap (Regular Season Finale): L 9 - 8

Both goalies made great saves on each team’s first possessions but Stepinac opened the scoring with a man-up goal five minutes into the first quarter. The Rams got on the board a few minutes later when Will Aventuro ‘21 (White Plains) drew a double team and dumped the ball to an open Lewis Moore ‘23 who bounced it just in front of the Crusader keeper to tie it up. A late Stepinac goal made it 2 - 1 at the end of the first quarter. The Crusaders notched three in a row to take a 5 - 1 lead before Patrick Cunningham ‘24 found a wide open Jack O’Leary ‘23 (Rye) on the crease who cut the lead to three. A late hit penalty on the goal gave the Rams a man-up situation in which Matthew Leonard ‘21 (Larchmont) capitalized off a CJ Sowarby ‘21 feed making it 5 - 3. The Rams then cut it to one when O’Leary ‘23 drove from behind the cage beating his man and the Stepinac goalie with a lefty wraparound bouncer, a move we’ve seen him execute all season long. Stepinac took the 5 - 4 advantage into the half.

Moore ‘23 opened the second half scoring in the first minute, burning his defender at midfield and putting the ball over the Crusader goalie’s shoulder, one on one, to tie it up 5 - 5. But Stepinac answered quickly to take the lead again. On the Ram’s next possession O’Leary ‘23 sent a frozen rope through the Crusader defense to Sowarby ‘21 who had snuck up above the goal line and tied it up again 6 - 6. One more score by Stepinac made it 7 - 6 heading into the fourth quarter. A Crusader goal at the ten minute mark took their lead to two again but a Moore ‘23 crank into the top right corner of the net made it a one goal game with eight minutes remaining. A man up goal by Stepinac made it 9 - 7 but the Rams kept fighting and Moore ‘23 notched his fourth goal of the game on a lefty high to high shot to the top right corner again, bringing the score to 9 - 8 with one minute to go. Unfortunately after gaining possession Stepinac was able to run out the clock and take the 9 - 8 win.

State Line: Moore ‘23 4G, O’Leary ‘23 2G/1A, Sowarby ‘21 1G/1A, Leonard ‘21 1G, Aventuro ‘21 1A, Cunningham ‘24 1A, Gies ‘23 15FOW, English ‘23 3GB, Miller ‘21 5 saves

Stepinac Recap (Playoff Semi-Finals): L 12 - 10

The defenses came out swinging with both teams’ offenses on the receiving end of several hard checks and takeaways from longpoles before a Rams penalty gave Stepinac a man-up situation, where it took the lead at the eight minute mark. The defenders and goalies continued to lock down the offenses, including Sean Miller ‘21 making three tough saves, before Stepinac netted its second with 16 seconds to go in the first quarter. The Prep got on the board three minutes into the second when Jack O’Leary ‘23 drove his defender from up top and fired a shot on the run into the corner of the net making it 2 - 1. The Rams then tied it up on a beautiful pass sequence from Charlie English ‘23 to CJ Sowarby ‘21 to Matthew Leonard ‘21 who registered the goal to make it 2 - 2. Stepinac answered a minute later to regain the lead but on the ensuing faceoff Thomas Gies ‘23 found Charlie English ‘23 who took it to the cage to even it up 3 - 3. The Crusaders dominated the remainder of the quarter putting four more in and taking a 7 - 3 lead into halftime.

Early in the third quarter Stepinac added one more, bringing its lead to five, but with just under five minutes in the quarter Will Aventuro ‘21 cranked a high bouncer from a few yards inside the restraining line to bring it to 8 - 4. One more from the Crusaders and a nice dip and dunk at the goal line by English ‘23 took a 9 - 5 scoreboard into the fourth quarter. The Rams cut the lead to three early in the fourth on a great ride by English ‘23 and CJ Sowarby ‘21, who both jumped the Crusader goalie and stripped the ball with Sowarby ‘21 dumping it in the goal. Two more quick scores by Stepinac made it 11 - 6 with just under seven minutes to go but the Rams refused to give up. O’Leary ‘23 found English ‘23 with a sneaky cross crease pass and English ‘23 followed up with his own unassisted score to make it 12 - 8 with two and a half minutes remaining. Gies ‘23 continued his dominance at the X winning the ensuing faceoff and taking it down himself to score and put the Rams within three, 12 - 9. O’Leary ‘23 ripped one into the net with a minute remaining to make it 12 - 10 however Stepinac got possession after the faceoff and although the Rams broke out the ten man ride, they couldn’t wrestle the ball back as time expired for a 12 - 10 final.

Stat Line: English ‘23 4G/3GB, O’Leary ‘23 2G/1A, Sowarby ‘21 1G/2A, Gies ‘23 1G/1A/21GB/23FOW, Aventuro ‘21 1G, Leonard ‘21 1G, Miller ‘21 9 saves