For a fifth-consecutive season, Coach Steve Lennon and his Rye High School varsity boys lacrosse team were back in a familiar setting: the final four of the New York state Class C championship.
Despite a regular season record of nine wins and seven losses, the Garnets had won four straight postseason games to arrive at Bob Ford Field on the SUNY Albany campus to play Bayport-Blue Point High School from Long Island in the East Semifinal.
Rye started the game in impressive fashion, with a first-quarter hat trick from junior Tyler McDermott to give the Garnets a 3-0 lead. Sophomore Henry Shoemaker and junior Gage Sasse each added a goal, for a 5–1 lead, though the Phantoms were able to narrow the gap to 5-4 by halftime.
Heading into the final quarter, a fourth goal by McDermott had knotted the game at 6-6. Rye junior Tucker Hess made it 7-6, but the Phantoms then scored three of the four final goals to win the game, 9-8, and punch their ticket to the Class C final three days later. Bayport-Blue Point ultimately won the championship and finished its season with a 21-1 record.
Rye finished the 2024 season with a 13–8 record. Despite a series of difficult losses — six of Rye’s eight losses were by a single goal, including the Class C East Semifinal —Lennon and his players never wavered in their belief of the team’s strength and quality. Considering the team’s relative youth and inexperience — only seven players were lost to graduation on June 21 — boys lacrosse had an outstanding season, with Section 1 titles and state championship final-four appearances now the norm.
