New Canaan Lacrosse Third Grade Roundup: May 19

As the New Canaan High School varsity team gears up for a defense of their back-to-back FCIAC titles, the youth lacrosse league—New Canaan Lacrosse Association—is in full swing. Here’s a look at some of the action in the third grade division:

North Carolina 5  Duke 4 – North Carolina was able to edge out Duke 5-4 in a very exciting close battle. Ryan Connelly and Cameron Wietfeldt lead the Tar Heels with 2 goals each. Connelly also had 2 assists including the game winning buzzer-beating pass across the crease to Mathew Salmini who scored with 2 seconds left in the game.

The Tar-Heels also enjoyed some great all-around gritty defensive play from John Totaro, Andrew Rittenberry, William Webster, and Nathaniel Moor, while the relentless ground ball play of Jerome Roscoe, Hunter Nelson, Holden Busby and Jason Pastushan tilted the possessions in favor of Carolina.

Duke’s powerful offense lead by Andrew Nolan, Mack Seleert and Giovanni  Cascione generated 4 goals with some lazer-like passes. Tommy Goetz provided some fancy stick work with Benjamin Bo, Reese Hantattie, Scott Fitzgibbon providing the strong play in the defensive zone.  AJ Bell and Richie Whitcomb kept is close with some great goal tending.

Virginia 6  Notre Dame 4 – Virginia came out and scored a quick 3 goals which helped them defeat Notre Dame 6-4.  The very strong goalie play by Cavalier Jack Hladick also helped keep the Fighting Irish under control with his three key saves. Blake Wilson and Beau Johnson lead the Virginia offense with Henry Scott and Max Budnick contributing on ground balls, defense and some great passing.

Notre Dame’s midfielder’s Logan Carlson added 2 goals with Devon Christian and Ty Groff each netting 1 goal each.  The Irish trailed at Halftime 4-2 , but  Brendan Hagan and Charlie Vincent settled the Irish down in the offensive zone.

Notre Dame came  out and played much better man-man defense after a shaky start,  led by Alex Capelo,  Henry Garrity,  Caden Bowling,  and George Stewart.  Charlie Harrison was outstanding in goal for his first League action making many nice clears.

Denver 11  Maryland 4  – Despite some spectacular saves from  Maryland’s Luc Lampert, Denver jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead in the first house game of the season.   Maryland soon steadied the ship with solid defensive play from Gunnar Watson and Stone Anderson as the score over the second half was a more competitive 6 to 4 in favor of the team from the Rockies.

Brendan Briggs and Cooper Jessop proved to be a formidable pairing for Denver as they accounted for 7 of their teams goals while Alexander Sotirhos, Griffin Gentner, and Travis Sturke also added to the score sheet.

Tommy Augustine and Daniel Rodgers were instrumental in getting the Terps back into the game on the offensive side while Declan Ratner, Nolan Charlton, and Marco DeRubeis excelled in the possession game for the Terps.  The final score would have been closer still if not for some solid net minding by Denver’s Andy Li.