Boys lacrosse: Canandaigua takes on powerhouse Garden City in Class B final

The drive for the Canandaigua Academy boys lacrosse team to Hofstra University is just shy of 6 hours.

For Garden City, CA’s opponent, it’s about 6 minutes.

But the Braves of Section V hardly care about the obvious advantage the Trojans will have in fan support for Saturday’s Class B state championship game. Because there are more than a few Class B teams across New York that would gladly trade places and still have a season to play.

Canandaigua (16-5) will play for its first state championship since 2009 while Garden City (18-2), the Long Island powerhouse, has sights set on state title No. 8 after winning its seventh title in 2018.

More: Boys lacrosse: Canandaigua advances to state Class B final; Fairport falls

And as you might expect, Saturday’s 3 p.m. championship game begins at the middle of the field with faceoffs.

Men in the middle

Canandaigua’s Luke McCrobie has been a difference-maker for the Braves, especially since his return from injury. But he’ll have his hands full with Garden City’s Jack Cascadden, a 6-foot-2, 220-pound Cornell commit who was the Nassau County Player of the Year for football and whose father played linebacker for the New York Jets. Cascadden is your stereotypical “beast” on faceoffs, using his size, strength and quickness to clamp first, then push opponents out of the way to win clean possessions and get the Trojans set up on offense.

Garden City: Strong Island lacrosse

For the faceoffs that McCrobie is to win, the Canandaigua offense will be trying to solve a defense similar to the defense it sees every day in practice. Brendan Staub (Cornell), Tristian Mullahey (Navy) and Cole Weber (Virginia) do the close work in front of goalie Chris Allen, who had 10 saves in the East semifinal win over Rye, for a unit that hasn’t allowed more than six goals to an opponent since late April.

Garden City lost a lot of offense to graduation, but Steve Finnell (Syracuse) and Luke Schmitt (Providence) join Mike Fargione and Henry Gibbons are part of a unit that adjusts well to whatever defense is in front of it. If the Trojans need to be patient and wait for looks, they’ll do it. But if the situation calls for transition, the Trojans can strike quickly.

No secrets for Canandaigua

To be sure, the defense that’s been Canandaigua’s calling card all season will face its biggest test of the season. Coach Deven York is aware of that and his confidence is boosted by the elevated play his unit has shown the last couple of weeks.

York pointed to the suffocating performance in Wednesday’s win over West Genesee, where the defense played as a team unit and is at the point where fundamentals like switches and slides rarely need to be called out because the Braves are in a groove where those schemes are simply instinct now.

As good as the defense is, the Braves still need goals to win and that falls largely on senior midfielders Jaxon Grant and Elliott Morgan, along with junior Nate Sheridan and sophomores Braden Gioseffi and Sean Olvany.

The Braves knew coming into the season that defense was their strength and the offense was young, so they’ve made a habit of extending possessions. It’s not exciting lacrosse, but it’s effective lacrosse and it’s hard to argue against the results.

The danger of that philosophy is falling behind, because it’s not an offense that’s built to rally. So the Braves need what they got in postseason wins against Victor and West Genesee: a quick start.

The Braves are relaxed heading into Saturday’s final, knowing full well what they’re up against. But that relaxation isn’t confused with concession because while they’re certainly “happy to be here,” the approach also includes a healthy does of “why not us?”

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Boys lacrosse: Canandaigua takes on powerhouse Garden City in Class B final