On Sunday, June 21, the CONNY East-West All-Star Classic celebrated its fifteenth year of existence with an added attraction, an exhibition game between the Ireland Lacrosse Exhibition Team and a team of former CONNY players now playing in college or beyond. The day kicked off with the CONNY U13 Junior All-Star Game at noon, followed by the Ireland-CONNY match at 2:30 PM, and the CONNY U15 Senior All-Star Game at 4:30 PM.

 

For the CONNY All-Star Games, quarters are longer than in regular CONNY games and special minimum playing time rules are imposed to make sure every All Star will get plenty of playing time.

 

U13 Junior All-Star Game: In the U13 Junior opener, despite what on paper appeared to be very equal rosters, the East All-Stars scored the first eight goals of the game over the first one-and-a-third quarters. The teams spent three-and-a-half minutes feeling each other out, before Tyler Burns of Amity fed John Pappes of Simsbury for the first of his four goals. Seconds later, Austin Sims of Fairfield-Wakeman took the face-off all the way to the hole to score the first of his three goals. The teams traded possessions for the next nine minutes, before another quick two-goal burst gave the East a 4-0 lead after one quarter. First, David Fries of Stratford scored unassisted and then, less than a minute later, Cole Pecora of North Haven fed Max Groen of Eli for the first of his two goals on the day.

 

Sims took three straight face-offs to start the second quarter, and each led to a quick goal. First, Sims took his face-off win cleanly and scored only seconds into the quarter. Then Pappes scored the second of his goals unassisted, and finally Sims repeated his face-off win/goal feat. Three minutes later, Benjamin Spencer of Wakeman extended the East margin to 8-0. The West finally got on the board when Zach Grimm of Norwalk made a spectacular end-to-end clear before passing to Andre Bogdanovics of Litchfield Hills, who then found Grimm on the crease with 5:45 to go in the half. That goal seemed to invigorate the West and the margin stayed at seven goals until Burns pushed it back to eight unassisted with two seconds left on the clock.

 

The third quarter belonged to the goalies, as both Wilton’s Jamison Hill for the West and Madison’s Ethan Baser registered six saves. However, the West’s revitalized offense managed to get three shots past Baser in a two minute burst, to narrow the East’s lead to 9-4. After half a quarter of spectacular saves by both keepers, Reilly Walsh of Bronxville finally solved Baser for the first of his two goals unassisted. A minute later, Alex Crowell of Weston followed suit, as did Joseph Redd of Brookfield just a minute after that, on an assist from Michael Kraus of New Canaan.

 

With Hill out of the West cage to start the fourth quarter, the East reasserted itself offensively with two quick goals, first by Ben Hamel of Cheshire, on an assist from Riley Blozzon of Shelton, and then by Groen on an assist from Connor Wallon, also from Shelton. Walsh, on an assist from Keegan Oelgoetz of New Milford, and Brad Westmark of Brookfield answered for the West to cut the East lead back to five goals, but the East then scored the last four goals of the game to reach their final 15-6 margin of victory. Samuel Watson of Trumbull scored back to back goals, the first on an assist from Trumbull teammate Vincent Russello, and then Pappes also scored twice on assists from Sims and Chris Copeland of Westport.

 

Despite the lopsided score, the great talent of all the U13 Junior All Stars was evident. All showed the potential to someday achieve great things on lacrosse fields in high school, college, and beyond.

 

 

The Ireland Lacrosse Exhibition Team 2009 is an Irish Lacrosse Foundation, Inc. program intended to identify and develop talent for the teams that will represent Ireland in international competition. It includes Irish nationals and others eligible to represent Ireland (i.e., with a parent or grandparent born in Ireland).

 

The game was played under International Rules, which differ somewhat from NCAA and high school rules – for example, 20-minute running time quarters, no “horn substitutions,” no limit on the number of long crosses on the field.

 

Just as in 2002, the more cohesive Ireland jumped out to a quick three-goal lead and ended the first quarter up 5-1. Just two minutes into the contest Mike Corry fed Kevin Owens to establish a lead Ireland would hold until late in the third quarter. Five minutes later, the Irish scored twice quickly when John Matthews fed Eric Pittard and less than a minute later John Ryan fed Ryan Radonis. CONNY finally answered when Mike Bocklet (John Jay/Fairfield U.) fed Rob Russell at the ten minute point, but Ireland quickly countered with two more goals by Owens from Corry and George Calvert from Jack Flaherty. Throughout the quarter, Connor Sweeney was magnificent in the goal for Ireland.

 

The second quarter began with the same way, with Sweeney stifling a series of CONNY offensive thrusts before Corry scored unassisted at 13:30 to give Ireland its biggest lead of the day at 6-1. Three minutes later, CONNY finally broke through with two quick unassisted goals by Trevor Scoon (New Canaan/St. Lawrence) and Mike Bocklet. Corry answered unassisted, but defenseman C. J. Costibale (New Fairfield/Duke) took the ball end-to-end to counter. Corry fed Flaherty to push Ireland’s lead back to four goals, but with just thirty seconds remaining in the half, Colin Molloy (Greenwich/Denison) fed John Urquhart (Wakeman/Brown) to cut the differential to three.
 

CONNY came out strong in the second half with two quick goals by Kevin Russell (Madison/St. Lawrence), unassisted, and Tim Cahill (Glastonbury/Middlebury), assisted by Nick Woodhall (Bedford/St. Lawrence). Dave Pittard interrupted the CONNY charge unassisted at 8:20 to push the Irish lead back to two goals, but just a minute later defenseman Parker McKee (Greenwich/Duke) scored off an assist from Rob Russell, and ninety seconds after that Mike Bocklet scored unassisted to tie the game. CONNY took its first lead two-and-a-half minutes later as Rob Russell fed Molloy.

 

Kevin Russell and Woodhall scored unassisted goals for the locals to start the fourth quarter, before Flaherty scored unassisted to stop CONNY’s five-goal run. P. J. Santora (Greenwich/St. Lawrence) fed Chris Bocklet (John Jay/Virginia) just thirty-five seconds later, and CONNY’s lead was back to three. Four minutes later Brian Murray scored unassisted, but again CONNY answered within a minute as Molloy scored off a feed from Rob Russell. Murray again scored unassisted at the 5:30 mark, but that was Ireland’s last goal as CONNY scored twice more (Mike Bocklet from Urquhart and Rob Russell from Molloy) to close out the game with a 16-12 win.

 

Leading scorers for Ireland were Mike Corry (2 goals & 3 assists) and Jack Flaherty (2 & 1). For CONNY, Rob Russell has 2 goals and 3 assists, Mike Bocklet had 3 and 1, and Colin Molloy had 2 and 2. There is talk of making this game an annual event.

 

Before the start of the CONNY U15 Senior All-Star Game, Duke All American and US World Team selectee Parker McKee spoke to the gathered All Stars. He congratulated them on their selection, and mentioned that he had never made such a CONNY All-Star squad while playing for Greenwich Youth Lacrosse. He said that their potential was unlimited, if they were willing to work hard … especially on the things they don’t already do well.  

 

U15 Senior All-Star Game: The East and West Senior All-Stars battled back and forth throughout the game, with eight ties and three lead changes. Peter Richardson of New Canaan opened the scoring unassisted for the East three-and-a-half minutes into the game, but Frank Palmer of New Milford answered unassisted less than a minute later with his first of three goals. The East then scored twice … Kayden Batzinger of Wallingford assisted by Paul DiStasio of Guilford and then Reed Schultz of New Cannan from Frankie Bacarella of Shelton … to take the game’s largest lead, at two goals, with 2:30 to play in the first quarter. That was cut to one just over a minute later when Grey Bradshaw-Mack of Weston fed Dylan McAllister of Pomperaug to cut the margin to 3-2 East at the end of the quarter.

 

In the second quarter, the West rallied to tie and take their first lead on goals by Grant Jessup of Westport, assisted by Palmer, and Palmer, assisted by Will Gibian of Greenwich. Forty seconds after Palmer’s goal, Harry Stanton of New Canaan answered for the East, unassisted, to tie the game. Scoring then dried up for both teams for eleven minutes, until Jessup broke the tie in favor of the West on an assist from Bacarella. The half ended with the West up 5-4.

 

The third quarter was wild and wooly, but ended up with the West still up by one. First, twenty-seven seconds into the quarter, Richardson scored unassisted to tie it up for the East. Less than two minutes later, Palmer fed Dillon Ryan of Brookfield to regain the lead for the West. Five minutes later Stone scored for the East for another tie, but another two minutes later Ryan scored again, this time on an assist from Drew Chapman of Ridgefield, to push the West up again 7-6. Three minutes later, Andrew DePatie of Guilford scored unassisted for the East, tying the game yet again. The East then took it’s first lead since the start of the second quarter when David Sizer of Simsbury converted a feed from Charlie Freyre of New Canaan with just under eight minutes to play in the quarter. But the East’s lead was to last only a minute-and-a-half, before Kevin Finely of the West scored an unassisted goal, and three minutes later Jonathan O’Brien of Pomperaug put the West back up with an assist from Jessup. The quarter ended with the West still up by one … 9-8.

 

So, of course, the first goal of the fourth quarter is from the East’s Stone, on an assist from Stanton. Four minutes later, with just over fifteen minutes left in regulation, the West regained the lead as Palmer netted his third goal, unassisted (to go with his two assists). From there, the excitement built and the play became even more furious as the West clung to their precarious one-goal lead and the East tried desperately to tie it up. The issue was in doubt until final few seconds, when the West gained possession in its own end and ran out the clock.

 

All in all, it was a great game to finish off a great day of lacrosse. Congratulations to all the U13 Junior and U15 CONNY All-Stars, and thanks to Team Ireland and the CONNY alumni for their entertaining game that showed the CONNY All-Stars the level of play they can achieve and exceed, if they work hard and smart.