Boys lacrosse: Jack Dougherty steals the moment, leads Iona Prep to a win at Stepinac
WHITE PLAINS – For years, Stepinac has been running uphill both ways to close the gap on Iona Prep.
The Crusaders were on the brink of a breakthrough Thursday when Jack Dougherty stole the moment, netting a goal in the closing minutes and delivering a dramatic 9-8 road win.
Ouch.
“It’s good to know we can stay with Iona Prep, but it’s frustrating,” Stepinac coach James Goldmann said. “We’ve been close a couple of times now and we just can’t seem to get over the hump. So it’s good to know we’re competitive, for sure, and the good thing about our league is we’ll play them one more time, probably two more times. We have to continue to fix the mistakes.”
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The Crusaders were trailing 4-0 before they had a single possession, but largely controlled the pace of play the rest of the game. Iona Prep this week climbed into the Nike/USA Lacrosse High School Rankings at No. 24, but struggled to regain momentum.
“We knew they were a good team coming in,” Dougherty said. “We just had to play our game, and for those first four goals, we were. We just had to get back to it at the end. I’m not sure what happened there. Maybe we thought we were going to run away with it, but they played hard and came back. The win here is all that matters.”
Aiden Bross gave Stepinac its first lead, 8-7, with 4:32 to go in the third quarter.
Dougherty knotted the score in the closing minute of the third quarter. It was a defensive battle in the second half. Dougherty broke the deadlock when he stepped down for a goal with 1:20 remaining to play.
“Me and Scot (Mackie) practice that all the time,” he said. “He caught the ball and I was fading. I knew once he found me I was shooting, and it went in. That was a nice goal to get.”
What it means
Iona Prep secured a bye for the upcoming CHSAA AA city title game and may see the Crusaders again in two weeks. Both sides have fixes to make. The Gaels were continually running into trouble on the offensive end. The Crusaders were exhausted after three quarters and that led to a couple of untimely mental lapses and wasted possessions in the fourth quarter.
“We have to take the positives and move in the right direction,” Goldmann said. “I told the kids, we’re halfway through the movie. We get to direct the end. Hopefully they make the corrections we need to make.”
Player of the game
Craig Daria recovered quickly after surrendering five goals in the first quarter and stole a couple from Stepinac in the second half. The senior goalie finished with 10 saves.
“I had to get that first quarter out of my head. That was rough. I hit myself in the head a few times and we kept fighting back,” he said. “I was a little jazzed up, so I reset at halftime, got a good warm-up and came back and made a few saves.”
By the numbers
Iona Prep (12-2): Dougherty finished with three goals and two assists. … Christian Tapia scored twice in a span of six seconds to give the Gaels a 4-0 lead less than 90 seconds in. … Gavin Blenk and Mackie added one goal and one assist apiece. … Dylan Reese and Blaise New netted one apiece.
Stepinac (9-4): Bross delivered two goals and one assist. … Brady Sharkey and Colin Callahan also scored twice. … Nolan Sharkey and C.J. Sanchez netted one apiece. … Denny Piekutowski made 12 saves.
Quotable
“I’m not usually, but today I was a little nervous,” Daria said. “I really trust my team and my coaches and we pulled it out. And that was a sick goal by Jack at the end.”
“I don’t think you could have a worse start,” Goldmann said of the first 90 seconds. “We’re a resilient group. When we start slow we have the ability to come back and we showed that, but those early deficits have hurt us, for sure.”
Mike Dougherty covers boys soccer, boys lacrosse, girls basketball and golf for The Journal News/lohud.com. He can be reached at mdougher@lohud.com, or on Twitter @hoopsmbd, @lohudlacrosse, @lohudhoopsmbd and @lohudgolf.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: lohud boys lacrosse Iona Prep tops Stepinac 9-8 on May 5, 2022
