YORKTOWN, N.Y.—No. 1 Yorktown faced No. 2 Eastchester on Nov. 8 at the Westchester County Center in White Plains in the Section 1 Division 2 finals—a pairing quickly becoming a great rivalry.
The County Center was an appropriate place for the two rivals to face off with everything on the line.
“It meant a lot to me as the first year as head coach [at Yorktown] and with so many young guys, to reach the finals at the County Center,” said Yorktown coach TJ Pufahl. “It was surreal. It was the real deal. I think it drew in a lot of attention as we had so many younger JV and modified guys show up to cheer us on.”
Yorktown gave everything it had but Eastchester had just too much, winning the title match 3-0 (25-11, 25-23, 25-17). The e Huskers were led by juniors Jack Brunner (18 assists, 7 digs) and Justin Sek (11 kills, 12 digs).
“Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way, but I think it’s going to fuel the younger guys to work harder next season and not settle for anything less than the win in the championship,” Pufahl said. “It was a tough day, for both players and coaches, but we all know what we need to do next season to come out on top. We have our work cut out for us in the offseason, but we’ll come back stronger, bigger, and better. Countdown is on until next season.”
The two teams split during the regular season, with Yorktown winning at home 3-1 (25-21, 20-25, 25-17, 25-17) on Sept. 23 and losing at Eastchester 3-0 (22-25, 11-25, 25-27) on Oct. 15.
Yorktown also hosted Eastchester in the semifinals last year, with Eastchester winning 3-1 (27-25, 25-21, 19-25, 25-20).
Yorktown (19-3) advanced to this year’s finals by sweeping visiting No. 4 Walter Panas 3-0 (25-23, 28-26, 25-21) in the semifinals on Nov. 5, led by the player of the match, Sek (4 service aces, 13 digs, 5 assists, 27 kills, 2 blocks), Brunner (1 service ace, 10 digs, 34 assists, 5 kills), and freshman Xavier Guzman (1 service ace, 5 digs, 8 kills, 2 blocks).
“It meant everything,” Sek said of beating Panas. “Losing in the semifinals last year, we really wanted to win and after hearing the sectional finals were going to be held in the County Center, it just boosted our spirits. The crowd was amazing today. It was just incredible.”
After winning the first set, Panas led Yorktown 19-15 in the second set before Pufahl called a timeout.
“I wanted to slow the game down, give our guys a break, we don’t have a deep bench,” Pufahl said. “We wanted to take control back of the game, which we did.”
Yorktown did just that, with two kills by Sek clinching the exhilarating, back-and-forth second set, 28-26.
“It felt great (to clinch the set),” Sek said. “We were down in that set and we came back to win it. I told myself to take a few deep breaths. The energy was really high but I knew I had to stay calm and I knew if I did that, I could perform.”
A kill by Sek, making it 21-19 Yorktown in the third set, and one by freshman Alex Mezquita, which made the score 23-20, helped the Huskers win the set 25-21.
“It was a great boost to the whole team,” Sek said of the two kills. “It got the energy up. We were all feeling tired but after those two kills, it really brought the energy back.”
Pufahl was proud of his team’s effort against Panas.
“It was a tough match,” Pufahl said. “We were down but my guys had enough confidence in each other and the team to play and win.”
Senior Emanuel Gojani, junior Jacob Sinu, sophomore Saarth Desai, sophomore Westley McGuire, sophomore Noah Won, freshman Siddarth Shenoy, and freshman Anton Ubozhenko are also members of Yorktown’s Section 1 Division 2 finalist squad.
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