In a lightning-delayed home contest under the lights, the Rye Garnets stumbled early and then turned on the jets, eventually leaving the Indians of Mahopac High in the mud, 12-5.

By Mitch Silver

In a lightning-delayed home contest under the lights, the Rye Garnets stumbled early and then turned on the jets, eventually leaving the Indians of Mahopac High in the mud, 12-5.

Mahopac, a big Putnam County school used to playing the Yorktowns and Lakelands of the Section One lacrosse super league, brought a busload of supporters with them Saturday evening, April 27, to meet the boys from Rye. And for the first ten minutes of the game, it looked like all those blue-and-gold-clad people would go home happy.

Brendan Donahoe scored the Indians’ first three goals in less than 150 seconds of the opening stanza, the third on a balletic, slow-motion move through the Garnet defense before slinging a high shot past Rye’s Elliot Meister. But, fittingly as the chilling rains increased, that would be Mahopac’s high-water mark.

Senior Chris Santangelo netted his second goal of the game for the Garnet and Black at 9:52 after banging a high shot off the pipes seconds earlier. Then sophomore Steve McCarthy saw a loose ball in front and scooped a shot past the Indian’s goalie for a 4-3 Rye lead. Junior Anthony Genovesi upped the count to 5-3 with a beautiful bouncer from 20 yards out.

At the break, Rye had 15 shots to their opponents’ five. And the disparity would only grow as the game went on. Right away Santangelo picked up where he left off, scoring on a long-distance sling a minute into the third. Less than four minutes later he scored again, literally winding up to buzz one past the keeper and make it 7-3.

A two-man advantage gave Rye their final tally of the period as Cal Hynson went high to jam one in, countering Mahopac’s only score of the quarter for an 8-4 lead. It was Rye’s 22nd shot of the game, with 12 minutes still to go.

Hynson finished off a classic fast break to make it 9-4 before junior midfielder Noah Spaeth launched himself for a score at 10:58. Half a minute later it was that man Santangelo again, this time running to his left and shooting right, through a crowd, for the home team’s 11th goal of the game.

And that’s when the lightning cracked directly overhead. The game was halted and everyone fled for the gym and the Middle School. New York State rules specify a 30-minute wait after lightning halts a game, so it was nearly nine at night when the suspended game, now resumed, came to a close with the Garnets 12-5 victors after a final Spaeth goal.