Rams Beat St. Dom's But Fall to Bronxville, Head to N. Carolina This Week

Prep rebounded from its loss to McQuaid Jesuit (recap) with a thrilling double overtime win on Tuesday against St. Dominic’s. It was a back and forth game, 4 - 3 at the half and 6 - 6 at the end of regulation, before Jack Freel ‘23 (Manhattan) scored the game winner driving from behind the goal in the second overtime. It’s nice to be on the winning side of one of those games as the Rams were on the losing end of their past three double OT games (Rye in 2019, Wilton in 2018, Bronxville in 2017). However, none of those compare the Prep’s six overtime victory over Kellenberg in 2015 or our personal favorite triple OT win against Iona Prep for the CHSAA championship in 2014. On Thursday the Prep lost to Bronxville 16 - 6, falling to one of the top programs in Section 1, as well as one of the best goalie prospects to come out of the area in years. Highlights include PJ Cunningham ‘24 (Bronx) notching four goals and an assist and James Spring ‘24 (Bronxville) continuing his dominance at the faceoff X going 18/23.

Congratulations to Hudson Marciano ‘24 (Eastchester) in registering his first career point in the game against St. Dominic.

The Rams are back in action tomorrow at home versus Trinity before heading down south to North Carolina to face the defending NC state champion The Cannon School (Concord, NC). We’re glad to see the team going on a Spring Break trip again, an annual tradition for the program for years, and something the Top Corner Club looks forward to continuing to help facilitate in the future.

Trinity is currently 0 - 1 with a 4 - 1 loss to Hackley. An annual opponent in the 1990s and 2000s, the last time the teams played was back in 2009, a 10 - 7 Prep win, in the NY Metro playoffs. The Cannon School is currently 9 - 2 with one of its losses to Jesuit peer Georgetown Prep 11 - 6, and this will be the first meeting between the two schools.

If you missed the Season Kickoff and Hall of Fame Dinner fundraiser and would still look to support the lacrosse program you can donate to the Lacrosse Endowment (here).

St. Dominic’s Recap: W 7 - 6 (2OT)

After stopping the Bayhawks on their first possession the Rams did a great job of moving the ball around before Charlie English ‘23 (Port Chester) executed a textbook facedodge to get past his defender and give the Prep the 1 - 0 lead. Both defenses and goalies were solid as St. Dom’s managed several shots but all were off cage or saved by Trey Lalonde ‘25 (New Fairfield), while the Rams were swarmed by Bayhawk defenders every time they got inside. A Hudson Marciano ‘24 feed from X to PJ Cunningham ‘24 on the crease made it 2 - 0 with just under a minute left in the quarter.

At the ten minute mark of the second the Rams found themselves in a man up situation and capitalized with a English ‘23 shot from a Hudson Pifer ‘23 (Croton-on-Hudson) feed, but St. Dom’s responded two minutes later with its first goal to cut the lead to two. The Bayhawks then had their man up opportunity and netted another to make it 3 - 2. Two long possessions by the Rams yielded nothing as the St. Dom’s goalie made two solid saves which led to the Bayhawks tying it up 3 - 3 at the 3:32 mark. An additional man up opportunity for the Rams was stopped by another fantastic Bayhawks save, while Lalonde ‘25 returned the favor with 30 seconds left stoning St. Dom’s on its man up possession. Just when you thought the half was over, English ‘23 swept down the alley and ripped one past the Bayhawks’ goalie with six seconds left to give the Rams the lead once again, 4 - 3 at the half.

Less than a minute into the second half St. Dom’s tied it up again until a Cunnigham ‘24 blast from up top gave the Rams the lead at 5 - 4 with 6:45 left. Cunningham ‘24 then followed up with his third of the day two minutes later to extend the Ram lead back to two, where the third quarter ended. A little over two minutes into the fourth the Bayhawks cut the lead back to one and tied it up with 4:35 remaining. Both sides couldn’t find the back of the net the rest of regulation and neither defense or goalie would give anything up in the first OT. In double OT each team had a thwarted possession before a solid clear by the Rams set up a possession where Jack Freel ‘23 drove from the top and rifled a shot offstick side low past the Bayhawks goalie for the win.

Stat Line: English ‘23 3G/6GB, Cunningham ‘24 3G/3GB, Freel ‘23 1G, Gies ‘23 1A/3GB, Pifer ‘23 1A, Marciano ‘24 1A, Spring ‘24 5GB/10FOW (59%), Muccia ‘23 4CTO, Lalonde ‘25 6 saves

Bronxville Recap: L 16 - 6

Bronxville took a 1 - 0 lead off its first possession at 10:12 and followed that up off a fast restart less than a minute later to extend the lead to 2 - 0. But the Rams answered at 7:56 when PJ Cuningham ‘24 found Charlie English ‘23 alone on the crease and used a nice fake to get past the Broncos goalie. Two straight from Bronxville made it 4 - 1 until Tommy Gies ‘23 (Rye) sweeping across the top found Cunningham ‘24 on the high crease who spun and deposited a bounce shot to make it 4 - 2 with just under three minutes left. Gies ‘23 and Cunningham ‘24 teamed up again a minute later to cut the Broncos lead to one, where it stayed at quarter end.

Bronxville dominated the second quarter dropping five more goals while the Rams scoring chances were ended by solid goaltending and a couple of pipes. A Bronco man up score in the first minute of the second half brought the tally to 10 - 3 until Jack Freel ‘23 drove from X and snuck a goal over the shoulder of the Bronxville keeper at 7:15 remaining. Three more from the Broncos made it 13 - 4 at the end of the third quarter.

Solid goaltending on both sides meant no scoring for the first half of the fourth quarter but Bronxville netted two quick goals around six minutes remaining and Cunningham ‘24’s third at 4:42 brought the score to 15 - 5. Cunningham ‘24 netted his fourth at 3:32 off a Jack Freel ‘23 feed while the Rams were man up and a late Broncos score made it a 16 - 6 final when the last whistle blew.

Stat Line: Cunningham ‘24 4G/1A/3GB, Freel ‘23 1G/2A/3GB, English ‘23 1G/1A/4GB, Gies ‘23 2A, Spring ‘24 9GB/18FOW (78%), Leddy ‘24 4GB, Lalonde ‘25 9 saves