Garnets Fall to Yorktown for First Time in Four Years
Yorktown has long been the Boys’ Lacrosse team other teams are judged by — winners of countless Section titles and participants in many State final fours. It was a monumental win when Rye Head Coach Steve Lennon’s group finally defeated the Huskers in 2019.
Over the next three years, the Garnets have proven their mettle by winning this important rivalry game.
This year, Yorktown is back to its winning ways, going 7-1 against Section 1 squads while competing in Class B. Rye, too, is 7-1, having dropped down to Class C.
What Rye no longer has is an athlete who rules the face-offs the way Johnny Hartzell did for years. In fact, Yorktown’s Chad Bowen would win 21 of 23 draws on this evening, a territorial edge the Garnets couldn’t overcome. Another problem for Rye was an injury to top scorer Kian McCarthy. The senior middie is a potential All-American.
The Garnets gave it their best, though. After the Huskers took an early 3-0 lead, senior Andrew Keller whipped home a low shot for a goal at 5:07 of the first period. A few minutes later, eighth grader Garrett Sullivan scored to narrow the gap to one.
Yorktown regained a two-goal lead when they scored 45 seconds into the second period. But sophomore attack Tucker Hess came from behind the cage to left-hand one in less than two minutes later. Long-stick midfielder Matt Gianetti would take a penalty at 6:32, but the Garnets were able to withstand the Huskers’ pressure. And the home side seemed to take heart after that: senior Tanner Howson scored two minutes later to make it 4-4.
As it turned out, that was the high-water mark for Rye. Yorktown scored with two and a half minutes to go before halftime, and the visitors were up 5-4 at the buzzer.
The third quarter saw the Garnets get into penalty trouble, as both Chris Guazzo and Joe Chai spent time in the sin bin. Yorktown scored a man-up goal 10:06, and then two more within the next 90 seconds. Rye sophomore Tyler McDermott won a face-off and fed Gianetti, who scored at 5:47. Yorktown got their ninth goal and fourth of the quarter at 4:20, but Garnets’ senior Will Bainbridge pulled one back to make it 9-6 at the beginning of the 4th quarter.
Keller made the difference just two when he scored his second goal of the game from outside with 30 seconds gone. But Yorktown put the game out of reach when they scored twice within a minute. Bowen was still dominating the X after every goal, so the Huskers had a wide majority of the possessions. Rye scored a final time when Howson connected with fewer than five minutes left in the game, but that was all. Final score: Yorktown 11, Rye 8.