It was a family affair for Yorktown on opening day as cousins, senior attackers JT Carney and Tommy Carney, led the Huskers with four goals apiece in Yorktown’s 17-3 victory over visiting Pleasantville on March 24.
“I’ve been playing with him since I was a little kid. It means everything playing with him,” said JT Carney, who also registered an assist. “It’s a great connection we’ve had since the backyard.”
Tommy Carney concurred.
“We’ve been playing together ever since we were kids, so it’s absolutely amazing to see what he’s doing,” Tommy Carney said. “Obviously, we are playing together now and it’s just amazing.”
Yorktown coach Tim Schurr smiled when asked about the Carney’s after the game.
“First of all, they are really talented players,” Schurr said. “The second part is, they were in the right spots and made good lacrosse plays. They played very well.”
Yorktown came into the game motivated after its 17-15 loss last season to Horace Greeley in the Section 1 Class B championship game.
“We always want to start strong,” JT Carney said. “After a disappointing end to last season, you always want to start strong, so it was a great win with the boys.”
The Huskers put in the work during the preseason, and it showed against the Panthers.
“We’ve worked really hard with each other,” Tommy Carney said. “We started the season not knowing how good we were going to be, but we’ve been working together, chemistry’s great, we started out strong.”
Senior leadership was also key to the victory.
“We have a bunch of seniors that lead, and we have been having a lot of good workouts,” Schurr said. “Obviously, we have some very good players. We are having some fun.”
Yorktown jumped out to a 6-1 first-quarter lead and never looked back. Tommy Carney, off an assist from Brady Sheridan (1G, 1A) scored 2:17 into the game to give the Huskers a 1-0 lead.
“We talked about the play before the game,” Tommy Carney said. “We drew it up, and it worked out just like we planned. It set a tone obviously and it showed on the board at the end of the game.”
JT Carney finished the scoring in the opening quarter with 4.1 seconds remaining, courtesy of an assist from junior Frank Ofrias (2G, 3A).
“It was a great pass by Frankie to me. It was off a fast break,” JT Carney said. “It kept momentum going into the second quarter and it let us keep on just bringing it down.”
JT Carney credited the team’s defense and assistant coach Tim Fallo for his scoring prowess.
“It starts with our defense,” JT Carney said. “Our defense kept the ball in the offensive end the entire time. I did not have to worry about the ball not being with us. It was also great offensive teamwork by our team, thanks to coach Fallo, for running a great offense. It was just working out today.”
Tommy Carney credited his teammates for his scoring outburst.
“They found me in the right spots every time,” Tommy Carney said. “They are an amazing group of people, and I am just happy to play with them.”
Freshman Kellen McGuire and junior Tyler Caricati did the job at the faceoff X, combining for 19 faceoff wins.
“We controlled the middle of the field,” Schurr said. “Our faceoff guys did well. They (Panthers) are rebuilding a little bit. We had the ball a lot more than they did.”
In goal for the Huskers was senior Hunter Mezzatesta (2 saves) and sophomore Dom DeBellis (1 save).
“It was a great team win,” Mezzatesta said.
Vinny Marchini (3G), Gianluca Marchini (2G, 1A), Ryan Fastiggi (1G), JT Sammon (1A), Evan Kurth, Nick D’Andraia, Mike Desiderio, Rowan Larsen, Chase Reynolds, Aiden Concannon, Cooper Constantine, Jayden Tyndal, Danny Weissman, Eamon Coney, Sean Munnelly and Anthony Cappelli also were on the Huskers’ opening-day roster.
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