Yorktown wins Murphy Cup

The postseason goals for Yorktown are to add to its 42 sectional and seven state titles, but during the regular season, its biggest goal is to maintain possession of the Murphy Cup.

The Huskers, the No. 6-ranked team in the Class B state poll, hosted Lakeland/Panas for this year’s Murphy Cup on May 9. Yorktown entered the game having won 32 of the 35 Murphy Cup games.

Yorktown kept possession of the Murphy Cup by getting off to a 6-1 first-quarter lead and didn’t look back in a 14-3 victory against the Rebels.

The game is named after Charlie Murphy, who founded the Yorktown boys lacrosse program in 1965 with a $500 donation; the Huskers began play a year later.

Murphy died at age 93 in 2005.

The Rebels’ last Murphy Cup win came in 2010, the same year Lakeland/Panas beat the Huskers in the Section 1 Class A title game.

“Charlie Murphy was a great man,” said Yorktown coach and former Husker player Tim Schurr, who was a good friend of Murphy’s. “It’s two teams in the same town, it’s important, it’s significant for us.”

Yorktown’s JT Carney (3G, 2A) echoed Schurr’s sentiments.

Carney said that winning the Murphy Cup “means everything.”

He added that “we circle this game on our calendar every year. It means a lot to win this.”

Brady Sheridan (3G, 1A) also registered a hat trick for Yorktown.

“To do it one last time for me as a senior meant the world,” Sheridan said. “It’s just a great feeling [to win].”

The game is also very meaningful to the Rebels.

Lakeland/Panas coach Joe Macchi, a 2006 Mahopac graduate, called it “great” and “an honor” to play in the Murphy Cup.

He said he has talked to his players about the experience and what it feels like to play in it.

“I’ve never got to play in it, I’m lucky I get to coach in it but I’m jealous of these guys that they get to be a part of an experience like this,” Macchi said.

Sheridan, off an assist from Gianluca Marchini (2G, 3A), scored the game’s first goal 2 minutes, 11 seconds into it.

“Everyone on the offense is all on the same page, we are all playing together,” Sheridan said. “It’s just great to be with these guys.”

Scoring back-to-back goals in the first quarter was Carney, the latter off an assist from Sheridan, which put the Huskers up 5-1 with 51.2 seconds remaining in the opening quarter.

“I have to thank my teammates,” Carney said. “I couldn’t do anything without them. They were getting the ball to me, I’m just able to finish it.”

Yorktown’s Chase Reynolds, off an assist from Marchini, finished the scoring in the first quarter with 30.2 seconds remaining.

“We had a bad end of the first quarter there,” Macchi said. “The last three minutes we kind of unraveled a little bit. That bled into the second quarter. Against a good team like Yorktown, you have six straight minutes of not great lacrosse, they are going to make you pay for it and a lot of times it’s too much to overcome.”

Aidan Concannon (2G), Vinny Marchini (1G, 1A), Frank Ofrias (1G, 1A), Ryan Fastiggi (1G, 1A), and Rowan Larsen (1A) also produced offensively for the Huskers.

“All year, we’ve shared the ball pretty well,” Schurr said. “We have a lot of guys who are maybe not the top 50 scorers but guys who have 35, 40 points, something like that. We’ve been sharing the ball all year.”

Producing in goal for the Huskers was Hunter Mezzatesta (5 saves) and Dom DeBellis (3 saves).

“They played great,” Schurr said. “They played hard. We talked about setting the tone and getting ground balls. Ryan Fastiggi, got a ground ball, he was literally four yards behind the guy and he got the ground ball. It was a huge play.”

CC Savastano (1G, 1A), Anthony Costa (1G), Anthony Ray (1G), Keaton Wolf (1A) and Dan Horowitz (8 saves) led the Rebels.

Yorktown beat visiting Mahopac 15-4 on May 5, with Gianluca Marchini (6G, 1A), JT Carney (2G, 2A), Ofrias (2G, 1A), Tommy Carney (3A), Sean Munnelly (2G), Sheridan (1G), Fastiggi (1G), Vinny Marchini (1G), Rowan Larsen (1A), Mezzatesta (6 saves), DeBellis (6 saves) and Tyler Caricati/Kellen McGuire (15/17 faceoffs) producing for the Huskers.

The Huskers (11-3) fell to visiting Rye 9-2 on May 7. Rye is the No. 3-ranked Class C team in the state. Yorktown was led by Ofrias (1G, 1A), Concannon (1G), JT Carney (1A) and Mezzatesta (19 saves).

Lakeland/Panas (6-8) lost to visiting Scarsdale 8-5 on May 6, paced by Costa (2G), Savastano (1G, 1A), Wolf (1G, 1A), Gio LaPeruta (1G, 1A), Aaron Federoff (1A), Dan Horowitz (11 saves), Frank Flannery (4/9 faceoffs) and Nate Horowitz (4/8 faceoffs).

Yorktown will next travel to Ridgefield at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 12, and Lakeland/Panas will make the trip to Suffern at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 13.