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Mamaroneck, Putnam Valley, Lakeland Champions

Posted on by L. Dreeye
Mamaroneck, Putnam Valley, Lakeland Champions

Note: This story will be updated throughout Saturday as each of the three Class 1 field hockey championships concludes.

BUSH OAK — There is no such thing as certainty, at least not in sports.

But Saturday’s Mamaroneck-Ketcham showdown for the Section 1 Class A field hockey crown could be considered close.

After finally entering the game, top-ranked Mamaroneck had outscored its opponents 130-5 this season. And 11 of those goals came in a regular-season rout of the second-seeded Storm.

Ketcham coach John Sullivan told his team before the game to “just believe,” and that all the pressure was on Mamaroneck, the defending Class A state champion.

“We wanted to shock Section 1,” he said. But it was clear from the very beginning that this would not happen.

The Tigers, who hit 34 shots to Ketcham’s two, beat Ketcham 6-0.

Catherine D’Arcy had a goal and two assists, Lexi Suman and Lucy Kaplan each had a goal and one assist, Ali Maresca, Gabby Sosa and Lily Brickman each had an assist, and Sadie Fennell and Ruby Pearson each had an assist.

The score would have been much more lopsided if not for the performance of Storm goalkeeper Gwenyth Brown.

She had several jumping stops with highlights, one of which she followed and another which she bailed off the ground.

But although Mamaroneck didn’t score until 6:26 into the first quarter thanks to Maresca’s beautiful redirection off the left post on D’Arcy’s shot, the Tigers led 4-0 at the half, and any thought that someone will be shocked has long passed.

Brown, who scored her third goal on a rebound after stopping two straight shots, made 10 saves for Ketcham, which finished the season 13-6.

Penny Norgaard made two saves for the 19-0 Tigers, who will play the Section 9 Class A champion in the state regional final at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 9, at Arlington High School.

Maresca noted that her team doesn’t take anything for granted. “We focus on every obstacle that comes up,” she said.

Suman, who praised Brown’s performance, said that despite building a healthy cushion, Mamaroneck “hustle hard throughout the game.” She said that as players step up this season to replace those who lost graduation, she believes this year’s Tigers team is comparable in skill to last year’s state champions.

“We’re still proud of ourselves because we fought hard,” Brown said of Ketcham.

Sullivan called Mamaroneck a well-trained, well-oiled machine: “They are the sweetest girls. You can’t even get mad at them and use it,” he said of the Tiger players.

Quarterback on track to star: Mulqueen scores twice to lead Putnam Valley over Pleasantville in Class C championship

Ask Kate Mulqueen what position she plays.

Before Saturday, the Putnam Valley sophomore would have been talking about defense.

But Mulqueen, who may have had two very brief experiences playing on the offensive end of the field in games that were already well decided this fall, was not only recruited to advance to Saturday’s Section 1 Class C field hockey final; became the star of the game after that.

Replacing an absent teammate, Mulqueen deflected senior Izzy Walter’s corner kick into the net for a penalty kick late in the first half and then scored unassisted again in the third quarter as the top-ranked Tigers beat No. 2 Pleasantville 2-0 in title in a game played at Lakeland High School.

The game was marked by good defense on both sides.

Putnam Valley, which beat Pleasantville 4-0 in the regular season, had a huge 14-4 advantage in penalty corners but capitalized on it with only one goal.

That was thanks in part to a great defensive effort from Panther junior Maya Fortier.

Panther goalkeeper Maggie Kearney and the rest of the Panther D players also turned in strong performances. Kearney finished with seven saves, including a pair of gems.

Tigers keeper Minisha Singh has also delivered for her team on several occasions. She has 10 saves.

Takeaway

With the win, Putnam Valley is now 15-3-1 with its only losses coming to schools in larger classes, including Lakeland, which won the Class B championship earlier in the day.

The Tigers, who reached the section final but lost in both 2022 and 2023, will play at noon Saturday against the Section 9 Class C champion in the state regional final at Arlington High School.

Pleasantville, which just missed a pass from right to left for a likely goal with 7:55 left in the game, finished the season 14-4-1.

They said it

“We really, really wanted it today. I think that’s what’s gotten us this far,” Fortier said, comparing the teams’ first meeting to the championship game.

Walter, who has verbally committed to play next year for Division II Mercy University, attributed the victory in part to the Tiger coaches and the contributions of players who have graduated over the past couple of years.

She said the program has a “great environment for learning and growth” and noted that this year’s win was due to the maturation of last year’s returning players.

Mulqueen wasn’t on this team last year. She attended junior university.

About her move to offense and her goals, she smiled and simply said, “It just worked.”

Putnam Valley head coach Tracy Parchen was more effusive.

“She did a great job,” she said of Mulqueen. “It’s really amazing.”

Class B: Lakeland beats Greeley in shootout after neither team scored in regulation or two overtimes

After four scoreless quarters, two scoreless 10-minute overtimes and a shootout decided by the last shooter, that shooter (Lakeland freshman Aditi Parambat) said she was speechless.

But even if she had 1,000, she might not have been able to adequately describe how her team won its 16th straight Section 1 field hockey championship by making two shots in the shootout instead of one for Horace Greeley’s team , who dominated at times and came, as his coach Sukhi Sandhu later told his sad team, “so many times so close” to victory.

Both goalies had outstanding performances.

Really great games.

Lakeland junior Jenna Yazzetti saved Lakeland’s season by diving left to right in the air to stop a high shot in the final seconds of regulation.

Perhaps this was the salvation of the year in the first part.

“She’s a phenomenal goalkeeper,” said Sharon Sarsen, who led Lakeland to each sectional championship. “She’s a gamer. She loves big moments.”

Yazzetti made 11 saves, including four in the shootout.

Her colleague, Quaker freshman Darby Robertson, did not take the test as often, but she did take it again and again. She had five saves during regulation and three in the shootout.

In the penalty shootout, the players went 1v0 on the goalkeeper and had 10 seconds to score unless the ball went out of bounds.

Gabby Santini, a fast and talented Lakeland senior who was limited to one shot on net going into the shootout, got the rebound and put it past Robertson to give Lakeland a 1-0 lead.

But Layla Thaiski tied things up, forcing Yazzetti to fall and then passing her to score.

In the end, it was Parambath who got the rebound and was able to defeat Darby, giving Lakeland the Class B crown.

Field hockey, how they got here: Section 1 and the private school playoff scoreboard keep you up to date.

Takeaway

Lakeland, which beat Greeley 2-0 in the regular season, is now 18-2.

He will play the Section 9 winner in the Class B state regional final at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 9, at Arlington High School.

Greeley, whose defense led by Eve Rutman was terrific throughout the game, finished the season with a 16–4 record.

They said it

“Greeley played tough defense and took away our strengths,” Sarsen said.

Greeley beat Lakeland with multiple goals, especially in the first half when Sarsen said her team was “flat.” The fact that a rookie won the game for Lakeland didn’t come as a complete surprise to Sarsen, who had several young players on the field.

“At this level you need to win as a team. We fought. We had a ‘next man up’ mentality,” she said.

Of Greeley, Santini said, “They came in really prepared and confident.” She described Robertson’s performance as “amazing”.

Yazzetti, who made 99 career saves for the varsity team, noted that she spoke with Parambat before shootaround and told her to play like she always does and, “Go get it.”

She noted that Parambat beat her on penalties in practice, just like the one she scored on Saturday.

“I’m so grateful she scored. I’m so proud of her,” Yazzetti said, calling the win the first of her three sectional titles with Lakeland.

Parambat managed to gather a few words, noting that as she moved toward her goal, she remembered her father’s instructions to “calm down.”

Rutman, who was all over the field correctly anticipating several Lakeland passes, batting them down and then creating offense the other way, said the game was her best ever against Lakeland, which beat her 1-0 last year. final.

“It was the best thing we ever did. We had a better attitude,” she said.

And she noted that this mindset will continue into next year.

Noting, “The third time’s the charm,” she predicted Greeley will win the 2025 section title.

Nancy Haggerty covers track, track and field, field hockey, skiing, basketball, women’s lacrosse and other sporting events for The Journal News/lohud. Follow her on Twitter at @HaggertyNancy.