Here is the long-awaited ESG roster. The coaches are John Callanan of Suffern and Joe Corace of Mahopac. Unlike some other sports, it looks like most of the best players in our area came out for the team, which is great to see. It’ll be very interesting to see what happens this summer.

Gina Molfetta, Mahopac
Emily Rogers, Mahopac
Ashley Carey, Mahopac
Caitlin Karner, Mahopac
Caitlyn Corace, Mahopac
Ali Steinberg, Suffern
Jessi Steinberg, Suffern
Lara Kozin, Suffern
Ali Mandel, Suffern
Amanda Lambert, Suffern
Joanna Johnson, Suffern
Chrissy Gutenberger, North Rockland
Emily Biondi , Brewster
Kirstin Lang, John Jay
Hillary Smith, Hackley
Courtney Miller, Horace Greeley
Caroline Chesterman, Nyack
Jessica Curran, Lakeland
Hannah Frey, Nanuet
Brianna Straut, Nanuet

Alternates
Alex Fitzpatrick, Lakeland
Ana Berman, North Rockland
Morgan McGowan, North Rockland
Kelsey Sickles, Yorktown
Micaela Desimone, Suffern
Kelsey Rehain, Suffern
Catherine Murtagh, Rye
Margaret Souther, Scarsdale
Brittany Gilligan
Elizabeth Garry, Rye Country Day
MacKenzy Ryan, Mahopac

Hopefully some of you saw my live in-game updates from the Nanuet girls lacrosse game, and I know a bunch of people were able to follow Yorktown and John Jay in the state playoffs on the boys lacrosse blog. Well, a reporter covering Louisville baseball for the Courier-Journal tried doing the same thing and was ejected from the game by the NCAA.

I don’t think this will be a problem for high school sports, mainly because there’s no money involved in televising the events. But it’s certainly an interesting turn of events for sports bloggers.

The 10 All-America selections from Section 1 (including four honorable mentions) were announced at the all-section dinner tonight at the Casa Mia Manor House in Blauvelt. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to tape Nyack coach Al Pesner as he offered his commentary on each player. This list will have to suffice.

All-America:

Hannah Frey, Nanuet

Melissa Gonzalez, Lakeland/Panas

Kaitlyn O’Sullivan, Yorktown

Chelsea Robinson, Lakeland/Panas

Jessi Steinberg, Suffern

Amy Voelkel, Lakeland/Panas

Honorable mention:

Julia Braun, North Rockland

Sam Fontanella, Suffern

Courtney Miller, Horace Greeley

Ali Steinberg, Suffern

The girls lacrosse season came to a pretty abrupt end as Lakeland/Panas, Yorktown and Nanuet all lost decisively to Section 3 teams at SUNY Cortland.

I only saw the Nanuet game, but I didn’t think the Golden Knights played poorly—Skaneateles is just an amazing team, especially since its only in Class C. The Lakers never stopped, either, scoring their 19th goal with eight-tenths of a second left (there goes the sportsmanship award, I would hope). Still, the future looks bright for Nanuet, who had as many seniors (three) as freshman in its starting lineup.

I will be giving live scoring updates from the Nanuet-Skaneateles state semifinal game, so keep it here.

The final score was 12-4.  The halftime score was 5-4.  West Genesee showed why they’re the top team in the nation with their 7-0 second half, and the reason is depth.  They can afford to rest their girls occasionally, which was important, because it was hot this morning.

Rosemarie Fazio had two goals, including one with no time left on the clock at the end of the first half.  Chelsea Robinson had a goal and an assist.  Jess Mucci had the other goal, tying the game at 2-2 with 8:50 left in the first half.

Goalie Alex Fitzpatrick had nine saves for the Rebels.

“You would never know she was a freshman if you didn’t look it up,” Fazio said.

The Rebels finish their season 21-2.

Yorktown is up next, playing Carthage in a Class B semifinal at 1 p.m.

After seeing three wins from the girls lacrosse teams at UAlbany on Sunday,  I went back up to Section 2 with the boys teams on Tuesday—and I basically saw the exact same thing.

The Class C champ (Rye instead of Nanuet) beat a completely outmatched opponent, the nationally-ranked team (John Jay instead of Lakeland/Panas) won easily, and in the third game at night, Yorktown won an exciting back-and-forth matchup with Niskayuna.

The main difference is that the boys teams now travel out to Long Island for the semifinals, while the girls go straight up to Cortland (and will face teams from the Syracuse area). Does anyone prefer one way or the other?

Section 2 posed a bit more of a challenge than Section 9 did on Wednesday, but the result was the same—a sweep by the three champions of Section 1. In chronological order, Nanuet continued its amazing turnaround from a 2-4-2 start, Lakeland/Panas continued its quest for a third state title this school year, and Yorktown continued its run to a second straight state title.

There’s one thing that didn’t get mentioned in the stories that Dan and I wrote. I was really proud of our teams, not just with how they played, but with how they represented the section. In the three games I covered, Section 2 received 14 yellow cards. Nanuet and Yorktown didn’t receive a single one (Dan covered L/P, but I don’t they they got one either). Great display of athleticism and sportsmanship.

Next up: Section 3.
Here’s is the schedule for Friday’s semifinals and Saturday’s finals at SUNY Cortland.
Class A
Lakeland/Panas vs. West Genesee (3), 9 a.m.
Penfield (5) vs. Farmingdale (8), 11 a.m.
Final: 9:30 a.m.

Class B
Yorktown vs. Carthage (3), 1:30 p.m.
Brighton (5) vs. Garden City (8), 4 p.m.
Final: Noon

Class C
Nanuet vs. Skaneateles (3), 6:15 p.m.
East Rochester (5) vs. Shoreham-Wading River (11), 8:30 p.m.
FInal: 2:30 p.m.

My dislike for the state poll has been well documented, but it’s still worth mentioning that West Genesee and Skaneateles are both ranked No. 1, while Carthage (4) is ahead of Yorktown (7). L/P is No. 2 and Nanuet is not in the top 20.

Lastly, I hope everyone who was looking for score updates yesterday was able to find them on the sports tab of our home page, www.lohud.com. To Dan and my surprise, there was no press box at UAlbany (there was one last week when Albany hosted a NCAA men’s lacrosse game, but they took it down immediately), so we didn’t have access to the web. I’m not sure what the situation is at SUNY Cortland (I know for a fact they have a press box at least). If there is internet access, we will post scoring updates here. If not, we will call the results in to our main office, and it will at least be posted on the main site.

Lakeland/Panas, Yorktown and Nanuet are heading up to SUNY Albany Sunday to face the Section 2 champions, and I can guarantee that the final scores won’t be a combined 54-7. In fact, I don’t think all three teams are going to make it to Cortland. Here’s some links to the Section 2 championship games, courtesy of the Albany Times Union, so we know what we’re dealing with.

Lakeland/Panas will face Guilderland, who won its first sectional title with a 9-7 win over Shaker. Shaker had beaten 8-time defending sectional champ Bethlehem in the semis, and they took a 2-0 lead before the Lady Dutch (!) responded with seven straight goals. Guilderland is the highest-scoring team in Section 2. Here’s the most important part—the team’s have already met this season!

 ”We lost to them earlier in the season (11-6 on April 5),” Guilderland coach Gary Chatnik said. “I think we’re a better team now. But we’ll have our hands full. They are the No. 2 team in the state.”

Quick sidenote for aspiring journalists: the article said Guilderland scored ”seven unanswered goals.” In fact, Shaker scored five more times after that. On one of my first weeks at The Journal News, I was taught that the only time goals can be unanswered is if the game ends before the other team scores again.

Yorktown’s opponent will Niskayuna. Leanna Pace scored a school-record eight goals as the Silver Warriors beat Averill Park 20-5.

Nanuet will play Emma Willard, who beat Holy Names 13-12 when sophomore Crystal Painter scored with 28 seconds left. It was the second title in three years for Emma Willard (12-1), whose only loss was to Holy Names.

Finally, some history. At this stage last year, Yorktown beat Bethlehem by 1 and Tappan Zee lost to Glens Falls 13-8. Two years ago, Rye beat Emma Willard 20-10,  Bethlehem beat Suffern 9-4 and Albany Academy beat TZ 12-5. Three years ago, Bethlehem beat L/P 14-9. And four years ago, Nanuet beat Holy Names 10-7 and Bethlehem beat L/P 13-9. Conclusion: Class C has done well, and Bethlehem will not be missed.

So, what does everyone think? Again, if anyone has friends or family in Albany, any additional information would be helpful.

The finals for Section 2 were held tonight, but a rain delay caused the final game (Class A) to be played so late that I didn’t get the result.  So I’m still not sure whether Lakeland/Panas will be playing Guilderland or Shaker on Sunday at 5 p.m. at SUNY Albany.

I know the other two opponents, though.  Nanuet will be playing Emma Willard in the Class C game at 3 p.m.

Yorktown will play Niskayuna in the Class B game at 7 p.m.

I’m sure the Lakeland/Panas people will know the result of that game last night, so please post it on here and enlighten us.