As the top-ranked team in Section 1 Class C just past the half-way point of the 2025 season, the Rye boys lacrosse team now enters what is by far their most crucial stretch of the year. The Garnets play seven games in 15 days before the regular season concludes on May 17.
Coach Steve Lennon knows exactly what’s at stake.
“We play one game at a time, one opponent at a time, and we don’t get ahead of ourselves,” Lennon said. “Our focus for the next two weeks is the same as it was when we started the season earlier this spring: capture every ground ball, play Rye lacrosse, and be ready to go when it’s your turn.”
The Garnets won their last two games easily, beating Scarsdale 18-6 on Monday and Pelham 17-5 on Thursday to improve to 7-2. But in recent matchups with top competition, Rye saw firsthand how thin the margin of error can be.
At home under the lights against Ridgefield, currently the No. 2-ranked team in Connecticut, Rye got exactly the type of game they expected from one of the top teams in the region. Loaded with sharpshooters like sophomore Chris Colsey, and playing a physical and quick-striking style of lacrosse, Ridgefield defeated Rye 10-8 last Saturday.
Sophomore Charlie Brady, junior Carson Miller, junior Henry Shoemaker, and senior Tyler McDermott all netted goals to help the Garnet cause. But Ridgefield did something not many teams have this season: they matched Rye shot for shot, check for check. With senior Ridgefield goalie Dylan Penn minding the net with panache, and his twin brother Brandon giving Rye face-off specialist Wilson Redd all he could handle at the draw, the Tigers withstood all Rye could muster in the fourth quarter.
A couple of days earlier, Rye came out on top in an equally exciting thriller. In a matchup of two of the top teams in Westchester County, Rye escaped Chappaqua with a 14-13 victory over previously unbeaten Horace Greeley.
With only 52 seconds remaining in the game, Greeley was called for a tripping penalty, giving Rye a man-up advantage until the end of regulation. After a skip pass from Shoemaker, freshman Will Niejadlik shook his defender from behind the goal and scored the game-winner with four seconds left on the clock.
Rye led 13-9 with just over eight minutes to play. But then Greeley got hot, scoring four unanswered goals to tie the score before Niejadlik’s last-minute heroics.
“I think we’ve done a really great job in the first nine games of finding our identity as a team and figuring out some of our more glaring weaknesses,” Lennon said. “Now, we are looking to become more disciplined situationally, so we can put ourselves in a position to win and learn to close out games.”
Next up is non-conference battle (just for fun) against New Jersey powerhouse Mountain Lakes High School on Saturday, the first game in a busy two-week stretch to end the regular season. After that, the intensity will step up yet another notch.
“Then we start over for the playoffs,” Lennon said. “This time of year is all about staying healthy and finding our stride.”
