Maine-Endwell leaned on another productive outing from Aidan McHugh and some Grade-A backstopping by Sam Toton in Thursday’s 10-8 victory against Johnson City for Section 4’s Class C lacrosse championship.
The lead was in the hands of the host team from the time Lucas Chanecka sent in a goal 2:39 before halftime. But darned if the Spartans could shake comfortably free of JC, and opponent with which JC had split a pair of regular-season contests.
McHugh’s five-goal take included three of his team’s first four, and Tyler Mathews tacked on a couple more.
How to properly celebrate this sectional title?
“We have practice (Friday) morning so, go home, eat dinner and fall asleep,” said Toton, 5 feet, 7 inches and 170 pounds worth of quality fundamentals, splendid reflexes and experience galore.
All-Americans from Horseheads, M-E, Johnson City lead Section 4 boys lacrosse all-stars
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Maine-Endwell will bring a 12-5 record into the opening round of state playoffs, 5 p.m. May 31 back on their turf. The opponent will be from Section 10.
The winner of that one will play Section 3’s champion, June 3 at Cicero-North Syracuse.
A tussle throughout
It seemed each time Maine-Endwell hinted at putting this thing away, Johnson City offered a little something to maintain the hosts’ full attention.
It was a 6-3 difference, then 6-5 when Orion Derr converted. It was 8-5, then 9-7 when D.J. Neer shook free for one.
A huge strike was provided by M-E sophomore Mathews who, with 6:41 remaining in the final period, accepted a feed while positioned on the goal’s doorstep and converted a sidewinder to make the difference 10-7.
Scrap as they continued to do from that juncture, time was clearing wasting for the Wildcats.
“I think it’s part of the rivalry between Maine-Endwell and Johnson City,” Spartans coach Andy Ewing said of that rival’s stubbornness. “We’ve played each other a lot of times, we kind of know what each other has and it’s back-and-forth, back-and-forth….
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