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Brewster, Hen Hud Hand Put Valley Pair of Lax Setbacks
Baseball Opening Day 2008 special for many reasons
by Ray Gallagher
 | | Putnam Valley's Ryan Fitzgerald cranks a shot in the Tigers' 18-5 loss to host Brewster last Thursday. The Tigers (0- 2) recovered in time to play much better in a 13-12 loss at Hen Hud where Fitzgerald bagged his first career hat trick Saturday. |
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Putnam Valley High was tied at 3-all in its season-opening lacrosse game against host Brewster last Wednesday, and before the Tigers knew what happened they were getting blown out, eventually falling by a 18-5 count in a non-league game. Brewster's burly Zach Badalucco owned the face-off box, ruling and schooling every midfielder Putnam Valley threw at him while winning 90% of the game's draws.
With the score tied 3-3 late in the first half, Badalucco, a long pole close defenseman, went to work. His efficiency afforded the Bears what seemed like sole possession of the ball, allowing them to break the game open with six straight goals in the final four minutes of the first half. Brendan Donelan scored with 3:43 left, and Kevin McPartland scored a gem from Matt King 17 seconds later. Matt King scored to make it 6-3. Drew Stubbs-Stroud then scored twice within 54 seconds, beating a helpless John Landi between the pipes.
Landi got little help from his poles, who were beaten time and time again by a much more physical and athletic Brewster team, which scored the first eight goals of the second half to blow this baby open. Junior attackman Dillon Chesnut scored twice for the Tigers, who tied the score at 3-3 on a one-on-one goal by speedy middie Jimmy Van De Veerdonk with 8:40 left before the half. Things were looking on the up-and-up for the Tigers at that point, but suddenly, the game got out of control.
"Definitely not the start we had planned on, but we are not worried," Coach Kuczma said. "My staff and I really believe this team can be very talented. Brewster has a talented face-off guy in Zach and of course without the ball you can not score. It really took the life out of our team. I also think with so many guys coming up from JV it is going to take some time adjusting to the faster Varsity game. It was already apparent in the Hen Hud game that we are capable, and adjusting quickly. So as long as we continue to get better and not make the same mistakes as the weeks go by, we will be just fine in May."
The Tigers recovered from the Brewster beating in time to play Hen Hud tough on Saturday, falling 13-12 to the rebuilding Sailors. Landi was said to be stellar in the cage, making 19 saves, including a couple of soaks from point-blank range.
Chesnut led the attack with four marks and Van De Veerdonk's second tally of the game cut the Tigers' four-goal deficit to one with less than a minute remaining and gave him the first four-point game of his career (2G, 2A). Sophomore Ryan Fitzgerald nailed down a hat trick, the first of his career, which has the makings to be a good one with continued improvement.
Unfortunately, Sailor middie Andrew Nieminski was busy dropping six goals and an assist on the Tiger defense, forcing breakdowns and finishing with regularity…
Opening Day 2008 - NY Mets fans like me are accustomed to superb performances on opening day, what with the Amazin's MLBbest 30-17 record on opening day. Too bad the other 7,406 regular-season games in Mets history have amounted to just 22 above- .500 seasons and 24 below over the course of 46 years; the end results showing just seven post-season appearances and two World Series championships. Is it any wonder Met fans look forward to opening day more than most?
But Opening Day 2008 was off- the-charts great for a host of newfound reasons, particularly since it was the initial baseball game between me and my newborn son, whom I'm obviously bum-steering in a pro-Mets direction. To sit there with this 3-month-old toddler bouncing about my knee as newly acquired Mets ace Johan Santana worked seven splendid innings of a 7-2 Mets triumph over the Florida Marlins; well, let's just say life couldn't have been any finer than at that particularly point. All was actually forgiven for last year's epic Mets collapse, thanks to this combination of extraordinary circumstances. I got as much B.S. going on in my life as the next guy (I'm betting more), but for a couple of hours there on Monday afternoon it had all vanished during an all-consuming moment when the bonds of father and son had engulfed the ol' man.
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