This is the year Coach Jonathan Sable and the Panthers have been living for, the year the four-year old lacrosse program steps up to the big time of Westchester varsity play. Not surprisingly, they’ve been taking their lumps in the early going.

By Mitch Silver

 

This is the year Coach Jonathan Sable and the Panthers have been living for, the year the four-year old lacrosse program steps up to the big time of Westchester varsity play. Not surprisingly, they’ve been taking their lumps in the early going.

Case in point: their 9-3 loss to Dobbs Ferry at home April 21. Fielding a team of mostly underclassmen, the then-winless Panthers held their own for the opening seven minutes, thanks mainly to junior goalie Renato Sansotta who turned away three Dobbs’ breakaways in the early going. He couldn’t stop the fourth shot, though, and Rye Neck trailed 1-0 when the period ended.

A bounce shot after two minutes upped the Eagles’ lead to 2-0, but midfielder Daniel Gottlieb came right back a minute later with an amazing slow-motion run through the heart of the Dobbs’ defense to make it 2-1.

It was 4-2 at halftime after junior Chris Richart lost his defender on a cut and scored. But that was as close as the Black Cats would come, yielding five second-half scores against only a second goal from the fleet Richart.

Coach Sable, who played lacrosse at Long Island’s Lynbrook High before college ball at Manhattanville, was hired three years ago to create a varsity program at Rye Neck, starting with the Modified level. “We are a brand-new program,” he said later, “and we’re still developing. Our record is where we want it, but I do see improvement throughout the team. Our stick work is getting better, and so is our players’ lacrosse IQ.”

If players learn from their errors, the young Panthers did a lot of learning in the 24 hours before they went back out to face Keio Aacdemy. Four goals by Jake Calcagni and three more from Peter Veltri powered Rye Neck to a 9-5 victory, their first win of the season against six
losses.

Success at the varsity level had their coach smiling. “Today’s game was a step in the right direction. We grow as a team day by day, and I look forward to continuing to coach these players.”

The Rye Neck Panthers host Briarcliff, May 6, at 4:30.