Photo by Jim Stout/MaxPreps.com

Graham Maybell and the Darien Blue Wave hope to avenge for a 9-5 loss to Manhasset last season when the teams play tonight at 7 p.m. at Manhasset.

Here we go.

It’s the first day of perhaps the most eventful week — from start to finish — of the regular season.

We’ve been talking about it for a while now, most recently with our “You make the call” thread.

And we talked about it some more in this week’s H.S. Notebook at InsideLacrosse.com.

By now, you surely know that we’re in for quite a week of marquee matchups.

So fasten your seatbelts, gang.

In fact, what promises to be a watershed week is highlighted by 7 p.m. games both today, at the start of the week, and Saturday, at the end of it, at Manhasset.

Tonight, the Indians host Darien in a showdown of rivals who happen to be perennial state champs. (Darien has won six straight Class M Connecticut titles; Manhasset has won back-to-back New York Class C crowns.)

Then, on Saturday, Manhasset is the host site for the120th edition of the granddaddy of them all, the Woodstick Classic, between 2010 Class B state finalist Garden City and Manhasset.

Since today is the first day schools are back from break, it’s a relatively quiet day in terms of the volume of games on today’s slate.

Horace Mann at Albertus Magnus, 4:15 p.m.
Miller Place at Southampton, 4:30 p.m.
Hastings at New Rochelle, 4:30 p.m.
North Salem at Arlington, 5:15 p.m.
Norwalk at Ridgefield at Tiger Hollow Stadium, 6 p.m.
Valley Central at Tappan Zee, 6:30 p.m.
Darien at Manhasset 7 p.m.
Branford at Cheshire, 7 p.m.

You can reach us by email at info@laxlessons.com.

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College schedule/Games on TV
For a rundown of this week’s D-I slate, and televised games, click here.

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Be sure, as always, to weigh in with info/thoughts/scores on games you attend. And don’t forget to put those mobile phones to good use in providing in-game updates, gang. If it’s easier, you may also send your updates to info@laxlessons.com.

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Posted In: Fairfield lacrosse, fciac, Gameday, Section 1, Section 11, Section 8, Section 9

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97 Responses to “Gameday Monday, 4/25: Darien-Manhasset showdown of state champs is the first of several marquee matchups this week”

  1. Ride the Wave says:

    Darien 10, Set 8

  2. F&MviaTP says:

    Since Manhasset games bookend this weeks huge match-ups & they’re coming off a tear thru MD…I’m sticking w/ my 11-8 prediction for a win tonight over Darien. Darien could make a huge statement for CT lax w/ a win. I just don’t see it happening. LI is such a deep hotbed for lax. Probably the best lax anywhere. Good luck wave..prove me wrong

    • Doid23 says:

      While Set may have “torn” through MD, it was like tearing some toilet paper, they didn’t play any MIAA teams. Anyone from Set have some flavor on why they would have gone all the way to MD to play those teams?

      • slacrosse says:

        Don’t know why they didn’t play MIAA teams which they’ve done in the past. Assume a scheduling issue. For what its worth Serverna Park has traditionally been one of the best public school teams in MD. Not much competition for Sett to say the least.

        • LI Lax says:

          Most likely because they scheduled the games before NYS made an exception to allow their teams to play MIAA teams despite the stick rule changes (MIAA plays by NCAA stick rules now). GC-St. Paul’s was nearly canceled as a result.

    • laxidasicle says:

      “a tear thru MD”? huh? they beat severna park which has 2 wins over .500 or better teams AND! they beat annapolis whose 3 wins were against teams a combined 2-23. great color! oh and hears a “fact”, people here understand that LI is the cream of the crop when it comes to lacrosse in the tri-state area.

      enlighten us to “facts” we don’t already know. otherwise, relax and enjoy the lax!

  3. sec1 says:

    0-0 first 8 mins spent in Darien Def end, Darien playing good D can’t clear.

  4. PVLAX says:

    scores yet

  5. F&MviaTP says:

    Set 1 Wave 0 all Set so far

  6. LI Lax says:

    1-0 Set early

  7. sec1 says:

    1-1 3:50 left in first

  8. sec1 says:

    2-1 Sett 2:49 left in 1st

  9. F&MviaTP says:

    1-1 Darien’s goalie on fire!!! Oops just beat him 2-1 Set pelting Darien w/ shots

  10. sec1 says:

    2-1 end of 1
    Darien will be man up starting 2nd,
    sloppy first Q with Sett having ball 80%of time.

  11. sec1 says:

    3-1 Sett 9:21

  12. F&MviaTP says:

    This could get ugly 3-1 Set…make it 4-1 w/ 5 left in 1st

  13. sec1 says:

    4-1 5:06 Sett
    Darien has been on D almost first half, if not for Goalie ug.

  14. Joe Lombardi says:

    Matt Tompkins has two goals for Manhasset, which leads Darien 4-1 midway through the second quarter, :Lax Novice reports.

    • Joe Lombardi says:

      Sophomore lefty attackman Thomas Lavalle, on extra man opportunity, and Joe Mancini, had the last two goals for ‘Set, which now leads 6-1.

  15. sec1 says:

    5-1 Man up
    on tic tac foul

  16. F&MviaTP says:

    This would be a blow-out accept for the goalie all-American performance but it’s now 5-1 Indians

  17. F&MviaTP says:

    6-1 absolutely no real offensive presence for the wave 1:23 left 1st

  18. sec1 says:

    6-1 1:23 left Sett
    Sett doing almost everything right, getting alittle help from Zebras

  19. sec1 says:

    7-1 12 sec left
    Goalie never saw it

  20. F&MviaTP says:

    7-1 Darien is seriously overmatched! See what I mean about LI lax. The fans are more worried about ‘nade & GC. This really puts things into perspective

    • LI Lax says:

      As they should be.

      • Just sayin says:

        Tell that to Cold Spring Harbor which lost to Somers and Northport which lost to Pac even though Northport is never that good.

        • LI Lax says:

          Nice win by Somers, but CSH also lost to Hicksville and Huntington by five each. And really? You’re bragging that one of your top four or five teams in Section 1 beat a .500 team from Suffolk A that’s fighting to stay in the top eight just in that league?

          • LI Lax says:

            And if by ‘never that good’ you mean a program with more state championships than John Jay, L/P, Somers, etc… and two state finals appearances, then I guess I’ll take it.

          • Doid23 says:

            Careful, you’re showing your pettiness.

        • laxidasicle says:

          CSH in a down year ala new canaan.

  21. Joe Lombardi says:

    It’s 7-1 Manhasset at the half.

  22. sec1 says:

    7:2 Sett
    maybell scores

  23. sec1 says:

    8-2 Tompkins with 3rd

  24. F&MviaTP says:

    7-2 defensive lapse.. Make it 8-2 great ball movement & defensive positioning by Indians

  25. Ride the Wave says:

    Darien just hasn’t had the ball. If they had the ball as much as Set they’d be up by a dozen goals. Once a healthy Henry West returns Darien will be a different team.

    • slacrosse says:

      Please!!

    • F&MviaTP says:

      Ridiculous…were you @ the game? This would of been a terrible beatdown for Darien w/o Torey Playing lights out & the refs’ calling Set for one penalty after another in the 2nd half. Stick to the FCIAC…the big dogs play on LI

      • laxr says:

        Maybe if Manhasset didn’t foul as much they wouldn’t have been flagged. Don’t blame that on the refs. Besides, Set got their share of calls, and Darien had just as many man downs.

    • laxidasicle says:

      this is the second post against manhassett where the other team would have won if they just had the ball. JJ being the other. c’mon folks, manhassett is head & shoulders above this local competition.

  26. sec1 says:

    8:3 Case Mathias 3:54 left in 3rd

  27. Joe Lombardi says:

    Extra-man goal by Case Matheis makes it 8-3.

  28. F&MviaTP says:

    Matheis makes it 8-3…Darien playing much better..make it 8-4 w/ man-up goal

  29. sec1 says:

    8-4 2:29

  30. Joe Lombardi says:

    Rich Gregory scores on another man-up for Darien to make it 8-4.

  31. sec1 says:

    8-4 Sett end of 3

  32. CT Lax says:

    Sounds like this game would be neck and neck if Darien were a healthy team.

  33. F&MviaTP says:

    Manhasset penalties have helped Darien scratch it’s way back in 8-4 start of 4th Blue Wave not as overwelmed as earlier

  34. sec1 says:

    8-6 Timeout Sett
    10:14 left

  35. F&MviaTP says:

    Another Indian penalty makes it 8-5 CT lax trust me these penalties have made the difference another Set penalty makes it 8-6 seems like Indians have been playing man down most of the half

    • Young warrior says:

      Just as man up made a diff for set in the first half….

      • F&MviaTP says:

        Another post by someone who probably wasn’t @ the game. The refs let both teams play in the 1st half & Darien was non-existant on offense. It wasn’t because of man-up situations. Go watch the games & comment. I’m starting to think people reading the updates are acting like they saw the game when they really sat @ their mac.

  36. Joe Lombardi says:

    Maybell scores his second after Clay Barker won the faceoff. Darien pulls within 8-6 1:46 into the final period.

  37. sec1 says:

    8-7 6:08 to go

  38. Joe Lombardi says:

    Bobby Weaver scores off a ‘Set turnover. Darien pulls within 8-7. There’s now 5:30 left in regulation.

  39. Joe Lombardi says:

    If you scroll up to the main body of this post, you’ll see I did advise everyone to fasten their seatbelts. Wild game in what should be a wild week.

  40. sec1 says:

    9-7 some home cooking by Zebras

  41. Joe Lombardi says:

    Tompkins answers for Manhasset. Indians lead 9-7 with 3:30 left.

  42. setlax says:

    10-7 now

  43. Joe Lombardi says:

    After a big save by senior goalie Frank Morelli, ‘Set gets an unsettled goal and now leads 10-7 with just over two minutes left.

  44. sec1 says:

    10-7 Final
    Refs get a C-

  45. Joe Lombardi says:

    Final: Manhasset 10, Darien 7

    Indians improve to 8-0. Darien falls to 4-2.

    Let the Woodstick Classic picks begin!

  46. LI Lax says:

    Final
    Manhassset 10, Darien 7

  47. F&MviaTP says:

    Statement win by Manhasset! Darien hung in the best they could, if not for Torey & the zebras keeping Set man-down for a crucial stretch of the 2nd half this would of been way more lopsided! LI is the best lax in the tri-state hands down & probably the country….I know the wave’s best middie is out.. You play w/ who you got. W/o Torey UGLY

    • Laxin says:

      I think we’re seeing there’s good lax everywhere – LI with WI, WM, GC, Set; HV with JJ, Yorktown, Lakeland, Somers, Rye; upstate with JD, West Genny; CT with Darien, Brunswick, Salisbury; Mass with Deerfield, Duxbury; NJ with Summit; and heaven knows – Pa with Haverford and Conestoga and of course Maryland. On any day any good team can beat another. Let’s stop with this regional bias nonsense. It makes whoever is aligning themselves with one region look so smalltime and biased.

      • F&MviaTP says:

        LI has WI, WM, Set, GC, smithtown w & that’s b4 you get to chaminade & st ants…CT has Darien then you bring in prep schools w/ pg’s. Talk about Wilton NC & Greenwich. What’s the problem w/ saying LI is the best. As a downstate new yorker I’m proud of it. Eventhough I wish yorktown PAC & somers could hang w/ the island. Hope town does vs chaminade. Don’t feel inferior…facts are facts

        • slacrosse says:

          Agree.

          As for CT the state of how good lax is should only involve the high schools. Prep schools that happen to be in CT and who draw kids from different states + have PG’s should only be judged vs other PG prep schools.

          • laxr says:

            Agreed, although I think you could make an exception for Brunswick since they have no pgs, and the vast majority of their players are from fairfield county (Greenwich in particular, with a couple of Darien and New Canaan kids sprinkled in). As for how good CT lax is…I think only Darien and Brunswick (and perhaps Fairfield Prep, after the performance against Chaminade) could challenge the top LI teams this year (and I mean on a consistent basis; these are HS athletes and any team can have a one-off freakishly bad or good performance – that’s why they play the games).

          • slacrosse says:

            Agree.

      • rick barry says:

        I will tell you Darien never gave up like John Jay did. Once Sett went to 5-1 JJ folded the TENT>

      • LI Lax says:

        Ok let’s not compare WI, WM, GC, Set, etc…with Lakeland, Somers, Rye, and even JJ. No comparison there. Same with Duxbury. Every region has solid teams for their region, obviously, someone has to be the best team.

    • Doid23 says:

      Why do you have to turn everything into LI’s dominance? Why can’t you just comment about a good game between two traditional rivals? Did someone from CT or Section 1 make fun of you when you were a kid? Let it go, appreciate the game.

      It’s funny, but one fan says the refs were biased for Set, and the other says they were biased for Darien.

      • F&MviaTP says:

        Please…games like this are the only way to rate teams nationally. Elite programs that travel from state to state & region to region do it to see how they stack up as much as get ready for playoffs. Trust me no one picked on me as a kid. I loved playing w/ tough kids not…well you know what I mean

        • laxman says:

          He meant your comparing of the LI area to the other areas across the nation was uncalled for. He never said comparing one elite team to another was bad.

          • F&MviaTP says:

            I just came off a season w/ a top 20 National HS hoops team that carried the torch for the ‘burbs vs ‘boros vs LI vs upstate & private. Trust me the kids & fans judge themselves by where they’re from. Otherwise let’s not talk hotbeds and national rankings.

          • Doid23 says:

            Then why are you the only one who keeps bringing this up?

            The discussion is valid when discussing national rankings, or posts about which area is better. You just bring it up every time, no matter the topic.

      • Lax Novice says:

        I’d say that in general the officials were much too much a presence in this game. It was a good game overall with each team dominating for significant stretches, Manhasset in the 1st half and Darien in the 3rd and half of the 4th. Then in crunch time when most games are left for the players to decide, the two possession calls at 8-7 caught everybody including the Indians by surprise and then good work by Manhasset got them the two late goals that put the game away, the latter a big save by Morelli that led to a breakout by #32, scoring on the unsettled situation. Good teams take advantage of opportunities, and Manhasset is a very good team. No excuses here, the Wave will try to put two halves together on Wednesday to avoid consecutive losses for the first time in a while.

  48. connlax says:

    Please, most of the penalties were fair. How about the back to back calls to give possession back to Set when it was 8-7, leading to the 9th goal? A stick check clearly caused that an errant pass, not a deflection, and the Set attack man was pushed out of bounds fair and square right afterwards (and he stepped out w/ possession, that ball did not bounce out of the stick and hit the Darien player). Not saying this cost Darien the game, but don’t pretend that Manhasset got a raw deal from the refs.

    • F&MviaTP says:

      The ref was right on top of both those plays, so I go w/ what they saw. If you’re saying that the refs didn’t call it tighter at the end of the 3rd & into the 4th leading to repeated man-up situations for Darien that lead to the goals that made it a much closer game than it really was…I disagree

      • laxr says:

        I don’t care how far away you were, there is no way that pass was deflected (hence why the Set attackmen sprinted after the ball to keep it in play. You also keep bringing up penalties, but it has been pointed out that Darien had just as many. Also, Darien only scored one goal in a settled EMO possession, so it’s not like they even capitalized more than Manhasset.

  49. Joe Lombardi says:

    Final stats:

    Manhasset: 2-5-1-2 — 10

    Darien: 1-0-3-3 — 7


    Darien scoring:

    Richard Gregory 2-1

    Graham Maybell 2-1

    Case Matheis 1-0

    Bobby Weaver 1-1

    Ben Preston 1-0


    Manhasset scoring:

    Matt Tompkins: 5-0

    Joe Mancini: 2-0

    Harry Kucharczyk: 1-1

    Thomas Lavelle: 1-0

    Ryan Matthews: 1-0

    Quinn Moroney: 0-2

    Darien goalie saves:

    Dylan Torey 20

    Manhasset goalie saves:

    Frank Morelli 8

    Records:

    Darien 6-2

    Manhasset 8-0

  50. Re lax says:

    Interesting matheis shut down 2 games in a row. Size works against him against top flight talent. He really got pushed around against the Fords, some of the checks could have been calls but he does have quick hands.

    • laxr says:

      I wouldn’t compare this performance to the one against Haverford. Murray dominated Matheis all game. Matheis did not look overmatched today, he just didn’t do all of the dodging. He beat Duvnjak a few times but didn’t finish, and showed great determination winning unsettled gbs.

  51. FCLaxFan says:

    Matheis cleanly beat Duvnjak at least 3-4 times, making unselfish pinpoint passes to open teammates and just missing finishing on others. While this was a classic battle of the top Junior attackman and defenseman in the country, Matheis showed the ability to motor past Duvnjak when given the opportunity. Scary to think how much speed Duke will have when Matheis joins Jordan Wolf in a couple of years!

  52. BigRed50 says:

    Despite officials giving Manhasset multiple free possessions at the beginning and very end of the game, Darien became a Team in the second half of last night’s game..the team it was projected to be in 2011. It found its face-off man in Clay Barker (#17), giving the offense a chance to gel and the defense a chance to breath. It will be exciting to see what the Blue Wave can accomplish the rest of the season!

    • Lax Novice says:

      Playing well in both halves tomorrow night would be a good start. I’m expecting more of a yahoo, football-style atmosphere at St. Anthony’s, so we’ll see how the Wave react to that.

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