J-D boys lacrosse secures return trip to state Class C final

CORTLAND – Again the Jamesville-DeWitt boys lacrosse team stands one victory away from adding to its vast state championship legacy, with every intention of having a different conclusion than 2023.

The Red Rams cleared the last hurdle in Wednesday night’s state Class C semifinal at SUNY-Cortland, with Sam Brazell adding to his big senior season totals with eight goals and three assists to help J-D take apart Section V champion Honeoye Falls-Lima 22-7.

These same teams had met in 2023 in the state semifinals at Homer High School, J-D winning it 13-5. The Cougars hoped that it had closed the gap with the Rams in the ensuing 12 months, but it quickly proved otherwise.

Just 19 seconds into the game, J-D was on the board with defender Ben Porter finding the net off a feed from Lucas Patchen and an opening face-off grabbed by Nick Miller.

Barely a minute later, Andrew Laubenstein converted, and even when HF-L got a possession goalie Emmet McCaul made back-to-back-stops, leading to a transition where Alex Carolin, fed by Laubenstein, made it 3-0.

The Cougars used a time-out at the 2:48 mark and did get on the board shortly after with goals by Owen Smith and Marco Vengoechea. Patrick Donahoe added a goal later in the period, and only Brazell’s tally kept J-D in front 4-3 going to the second period.

Whatever was said between the quarters must have worked because the Rams would put the Cougars away with a trademark scoring blitz. And Brazell, who has 79 goals and 61 assists this season, was in the center of it.

Miller’s complete control of the face-off circle got it going, and a 6-0 run followed, taking less than five minutes. Half of those goals came from Brazell, and he also assisted on a tally by Patchen as Laubenstein and Graham Kesselring also found the net.

Then, just 10.9 seconds before halftime, Brazell’s deft pass found Eli Goldberg for another goal, and the Rams went to the break sporting an 11-4 advantage.

Still, Brazell wasn’t done. During an extended man-up situation in the third quarter, the J-D senior got his fifth and sixth goals, plus assisted on Miles Patchen’s goal, all in a span of 57 seconds, and tacked on two more goals by the early portion of the final period.

The Rams scored three more times even after a running clock was necessitated at 19-7 with Ryan Babikan, Jackson King and Brody Kesselring all adding goals.

On Saturday at 5:30 at Hofstra University on Long Island, J-D will meet Long Island’s Bayport-Blue Point for the state Class C title after the Phantoms edged Rye 9-8 in the other state semifinal in Albany.