When you combine a marquee regular-season matchup with several of the most stacked annual preseason events, today may wind up being one of the most intriguing Saturdays of the entire season.

Wait, the season hasn’t even started — the regular season, at least — for most teams in the nation’s No. 1 hotbed for lacrosse, the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut tristate region.

But many of the top programs will be gathering in several showcase preseason tournaments.

The eight-team, fourth annual Somers Red/Gray Tournament includes three-time CHSAA champion St. Anthony’s, as well as Long Island upstart program Jericho as well as Kings Park and Section 1 contenders Lakeland/Panas, Fox Lane, Suffern and host Somers and New Jersey’s Don Bosco Prep.

The four-way Darien Jamboree features several perennial state champs in the host Blue Wave, West Islip and Fairfield Prep, as well as Shoreham-Wading River.

The annual, tradition-rich Daniel Hand Preseason Tournament once again features some of the tristate area’s premier powers. The event is in Madison, Conn. Participating teams include Wilton, and Cheshire from Connecticut; Syosset, Port Washington, Summit, West Genesee, Canandaigua, Corning and Fairport from New York; and Mountain Lakes, Summit and Bridgewater-Raritan from New Jersey.

Defending Section 1 Class B champ Yorktown hosts a three-way scrimmage starting at 10 a.m. that includes the section’s defending Class C champion, Bronxville, as well as Hauppauge.

As if that’s enough enough, there’s a marquee regular-season matchup as well. Two-time Class B state finalist Garden City hosts Suffolk Class A perennial power Ward Melville in a much-awaited 1 p.m. game.

The Bethpage and Island Trees Tournaments award champions today.

The Section 1 regular season starts at John F. Kennedy Catholic in Somers, where the Gaels will be proudly unveiling their new turf field in a noon game against Pearl River.

Also in preseason action today, Manhasset, which has won two New York State titles the last three years, visits defending Connecticut Class L state champion Ridgefield in a 10 a.m. scrimmage at Tiger Hollow Stadium.

In Section 9, Middletown, the site of this year’s New York state finals, hosts Minisink Valley in a noon scrimmage. Millbrook, FDR-Hydep Park and Kingston have a three-way scrimmage at Kingston’s Dietz Stadium at noon.

Also in Section 1, Arlington, Hastings and Westlake play at Clarkstown North in a four-way scrimmage starting at 10 a.m., and Archbishop Stepinac visits Tappan Zee in a noon scrimmage.

Don’t forget to check in with updates from the field with your mobile devices. You can post them directly as comments on this thread, or, if it’s easier, email them to us at info@laxlessons.com.

Finally, a couple of notes of interest.

We’ve been having regular reports on star sophomores making college commitments. It’s been a controversial trend, to say the least. The Baltimore Sun ran a story examining it.

Also of note, two of the all-time leading players in Yorktown’s proud history, Ridgefield varsity coach Roy Colsey and Tim Nelson, are among 24 finalists — 12 men and 12 women — for the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

Today’s schedule

* Section 1 (Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Dutchess counties) boys, girls (click on “Game schedule” tab and use the pull-down menu)

* Section 8 (Nassau County) boys, girls (click on “Game schedule” tab and use the pull-down menu)

* Section 9 (Orange and Ulster counties) boys, girls

* Section 11 (Suffolk County) boys, girls (click on “Schedule” tab and use the pull-down menu)

 * FCIAC (Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Association) boys, girls

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

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28 Responses to “Saturday, 3/24: Ward Melville-Garden City clash headlines slate; Preseason events at Somers, Darien, Daniel Hand, Yorktown; Manhasset scrimmages Ridgefield”

  1. LaxLessons.com says:

    JFK Catholic is unveiling its turf field in style so far. The Gaels lead Pearl River 7-2 at tha half in the first game of the regular season in Section 1. Nick Garofano has four goals and one assist.

  2. LI Lax says:

    GC 12 WM 9 final

    • LaxLessons.com says:

      Devin Dwyer had 4g, 2a, and Dan Marino made 13 saves for GC. WM – Brendan Hegarty – 3g, 1a.

  3. Miley ward says:

    Wow I just had to say kudos to Kennedy Catholic for much improvement! All I can say is coaching.

  4. The Rock says:

    Suffern looked OK at Red Grey. They are still without several of the hockey players and Kevin McNally, who will be out another week plus with that broken jaw he got taking a stick playing box lacrosse in the winter.

  5. BigBadBear says:

    Y’town’s own, big John Ranagan with the game winner in O/T, there’s a new No. 1 in college lax!

  6. Blue White says:

    Nice showing for defending State Champion Wilton at the Hand Tournament, beating Medfield 11-1 with 9 different players scoring.

    • Lax Novice says:

      How did it go against Lincoln-Sudbury MA, a team much more in Wilton’s class than Medfield? 4-0 in the 1st half with starters is pretty good. I’m sure you didn’t mean to include the 2nd half score with benchwarmers as any sort of indicator for future results.

      Oh, and there are three State Champions in Connecticut, in case you forgot.

  7. Big Easy says:

    Ridgefield vs Manhasset this morning at Ridgefield HS…Ridgefield was up 8-3 after 3 quarters…Ridgefield started a freshman and a sophmore on defense as LSM Sam Gravitte (JR.-Princeton) was absent…Ridgefield subs their starting goalie and entire attack and defense units for the fourth Q, Manhasset continues to run a short bench in the fourth Q…final score was 8-8…both teams looked solid…advantage Ridgefield…

    • Lax Novice says:

      How did Bob Duvynjak look for Manhasset? How about Ryan Mathews?

    • M Fan says:

      It’s just a scrimmage. Try not to wet yourself.

      If you’re soooooo interested in scores and advantage why not go for the WIN at the end instead of running out the clock.

  8. always around says:

    Yorktown looked good against Hauppauge and Bronxville not close either game.

  9. Lax n stuff says:

    To no one’s surprise St. Anthony’s was the best team of the day at Somers. Best team from Section One was LP. They even beat Don Bosco today, which beat Yorktown in a scrimmage a few days before. Somers looked shaky in first scrimmage but got better as the day went on. Suffern and Fox Lane both did OK.

  10. gear says:

    how was delbarton v Jay?

  11. One Who Knows says:

    Don Bosco played good against YTOWN on Wed/ but they didn’t beat them at the start of the 4th quarter with both teams playing 2nd and 3rd teams YTOWN was up by 2goals, YTOWN played lousy for most of the day however they didn’t lose . Today was much better for YTOWN not just the starters the whole team next Saturdays vs JJ should be a good clone game GO TOWN

  12. I-95 Lax says:

    Anyone with info on the Darien Jamboree?

  13. Just a Fan says:

    it doesn’t matter who wins these games, what matters is that the teams develop some chemistry. Regular season is what matters.

  14. Copps Hill says:

    Nice win for Field over Manhasset. Heard Shoreham and West Islip lit up the Darien defense like a pinball machine. Trouble in store?? Discuss.

    • laxr says:

      Nope. Darien’s D was actually their saving grace. Darien scores at the half (w/ starters): 3-1 win over SWR, 2-0 loss to WI, and 2-0 win over FP

    • Lax Novice says:

      Yawn, very classy as usual. New season, same hype. Please spare us from making up stuff like this, not that you have any credibility in the first place.

    • huh says:

      win? a scrimmage? huh?

      • laxr says:

        Come on, you know what I meant.

        • laxfan says:

          I agree – who cares about outcome of scrimmages. Bosco was subbing freely vs, LP from midpoint of scrimmage on while LP had starters in until last 2 mins. BTW, LP was not all that impressive either – attack is lacking, only Monteferante at midfield showed anything and defense was shaky and gave up a lot of good in tight looks. Zingaro is going to have to have a heck of a season in goal if they are going to do anything.

  15. hmmmm says:

    Still early….season hasn’t even started for most. But going from some of the scrimmages, looks like class A could be interesting.

Leave a Reply to Lax Novice