Photo by Larry Palumbo/Coyote Magic Photography

The Hudson Valley and New York City regions are off to hot starts, as the inaugural Empire State Cup lacrosse event is under way at Central Square Stadium outside of Syracuse.

The teams, both 2-0 in round-robin play, will meet on Friday, July 27 at 12:30 o,n, as part of a busy schedule. Each team will play three games to finalize playoff seeds for Saturday, July 28.

STANDINGS W L GF GA

Hudson Valley 2 0 21 14

New York City 2 0 18 12

Western 1 1 19 13

Central 1 1 18 14

Long Island 0 2 12 18

Adirondack 0 2 6 23

RESULTS/SCHEDULE

Thursday, July  26 

Western 11, Adirondack 3

Hudson Valley 11, Central 6

New York City 8, Long Island 4

Central 12, Adirondack 3

Hudson Valley 10, Long Island 8

New York City 10, Western 8

Friday, July 27

Adirondack vs. Hudson Valley, 8 a.m.

Central vs. New York City, 9:30 a.m.

Long Island vs. Western, 11 a.m.

New York City vs. Hudson Valley, 12:30 p.m.

Central vs. Western, 2 p.m.

Adirondack vs. Long Island, 3:30 p.m.

Hudson Valley vs. Western, 5 p.m.

Adirondack vs. New York City, 6:30 p.m.

Long Island vs. Central, 8 p.m.

Saturday, July 28

No. 4 seed vs.  No. 5 seed, 9:30 a.m.

No. 3 seed vs. No. 6 seed, 11 a.m.

No. 1 seed vs. No. 4/5 winner, 1:30 p.m.

No. 2 seed vs. No.  3/6 winner, 3 p.m.

Sunday, July 29

No. 4/5 loser vs. No.  3/6 loser, 9:30 a.m.

Bronze-medal game, 11 a.m.

Gold-medal game, 12:30 p.m.

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

Goals

5 – Christopher Santangelo, Hudson Valley

5 – Connor Fields, Western

5 – John Januszkiewicz, Western

4 – Kevin Lux, Central

4 – Ryan Wright, Central

4 – Matthew Heldberg, Long Island

Assists

2 – Jeffrey Edwards, Central

2 – Matthew Moran, Central

2 – Kendall Vecchio, Central

2 – Ryan Wright, Central

2 – Eric Gennari, Long Island

2 – Connor Fields, Western

2 – John Januszkiewicz, Western

2 – Michael Rastivo, New York City

2 – Dylan Fowler, New York City

Points

7 – Connor Fields, Western

7 – John Januszkiewicz, Western

6 – Ryan Wright, Central

6 – Michael Rastivo, New York City

6 – John Uppgren, New York City

Saves

12 – Brenden Deady, Adirondack

11 – Zachary Anderson, Adirondack

9 – Michael Zingaro, Hudson Valley

8 – Maximillian Smith, Central

8 – Kyle Lake, Western

THURSDAY, JULY 26 GAME RECAPS

Western 11, Adirondack 3: East Amherst attackman Connor Fields had three goals and two assists as Western, which led 6-0 at the half, won in the first game in the history of the Cup, starting off Day 1. John Januszkiewicz added three goals and one assist. Daniel LaCrosse scored twice. Austin Goltz (one goal, one assist), Tomothy Wagner (one goal) and Mitchell Wilson (one goal) also scored for Western. Kyle Lake (five saves) and Taylor Ferrino (two saves) split time in goal. Kyle Frognoli, Troy Miller and Michael Mineau scored Adirondack’s goals. Brenden Deady (eight saves) and Zachary Anderson (seven saves) split time in between the pipes.

Hudson Valley 11, Central 6: Hudson Valley raced out to an early 6-1 lead, and utilized a balanced attack to stifle Central. Rye midfielder Christopher Santangelo led Hudson Valley with three goals. Yorktown’s Brian Prestreau scored twice and Lakeland/Panas’ Brian Prunty scored one goal and one assist. Somers’ Alex Corpolongo, Yorktown’s Danny Manning, Iona Prep’s Kevin McDermott, Suffern’s Tom Sharp and Dobbs Ferry’s John Yozzo-Scaperrotta each had one goal. Zach Mermelstein had an assist. Michael Zingaro and Jimmy Danaher each recorded two saves in goal for Hudson Valley. Kevin Lux (Fayetteville-Manlius) paced Central with three goals. Gale Thorpe (Jordan Eldbridge) had two goals and an assist. Kendall Vecchio (Watertown) scored once and Jeffrey Edwards (Jamesville-Dewitt) had an assist. Maximillian Smith (Skaneateles) and Jacob Wood (Marietta) each made four saves in goal.

New York City 8, Long Island 4: John Uppgren scored three goals and Michael Rastivo added two as New York City stunned Long Island. The score was tied 1-1 in the second quarter before NYC scored three straight to take the lead for good. William Hutchinson, Dylan Molloy and Ross Schnitzer each scored once. James Coughlan had an assist. Dylan Moser (four saves) and Daniel Katzman (two saves) split time in goal for NYC. Christian Trasolini led Long Island with two goals. Nicholas Santorelli and Patrick O’Brien scored once. Eric Gennari and Anthony Ramaizel each had one assist. David Hwang and Anthony Delosreyes each recorded five saves in the loss.

Central 12, Adirondack 3: Jamesville-Dewitt attackman Ryan Wright scored four goals and two assists for Central. The score was tied 1-1 after the first quarter, but Central took command in the second quarter, taking a 5-1 lead at halftime. Connor O’Hara (Skaneateles) scored three goals for Central. Gale Thorpe (Jordan Elbridge) and Matthew Moran (Watertown) each scored one goal and two assists. Nathaniel Smart (Marcellus), Marshall Case (Vestal) and Kevin Lux (Manlius) each scored one goal. Michael Morgan (Carthage), Jeffrey Edwards (Jamesville-Dewitt) and Ronnie Bertrand (Baldwinsville) each had an  assist. Maximillian Smith (Skaneateles) had four saves and Jacob Wood (Marietta) had two saves in goal. Chris West, Troy Miller and Zachary Cole scored the goals for Adirondack. Zachary Anderson and Brenden Deady each made four saves in the loss.

Hudson Valley 10, Long Island 8: Hudson Valley hung on for the win to improve to 2-0. Hudson Valley held a 6-3 halftime lead, but Long Island battled back to cut the score to 7-6 after three quarters. Kevin McDermott and Christopher Santangelo each scored two goals for Hudson Valley. Alex Corpolongo, Andrew Davis, Andrew Landis, Brian Prastreau, Brian Prunty and John Yozzo-Scaperrotta all had one goal apiece. Michael Zingaro (seven saves) and Jimmy Danaher (two saves) each saw time in goal in the win. Matthew Heldberg paced Long Island with four goals and one assist. Patrick O’Brien added one goal and one assist. Nicholas Santorelli, Christan Trasolini and Mario Vezza each scored once. Eric Gennari chipped in an assist. Brian Hughes (four saves), Anthony Delosreyes (one save) and David Hwang (one save) all saw time in goal for Long Island.

New York City 10, Western 8: New York City outlasted Western in a game played amid rain. Michael Rastivo led the squad offensively with two goals and two assists. Colin Woolford added two goals. John Uppgren had a goal and two helpers. Dylan Fowler, Dylan Molloy, Stefan Pate, Gregory Pietroforte and Jake Schneider added single goals for NYC. Daniel Katzman made four saves and Dylan Moser added three saves in goal for NYC. John Januszkiewicz paced Western with two goals and an assist. Connor Fields scored twice. Austin Goltz, Matthew Kaser, Daniel LaCrosse and Ben Overslaugh each added a goal. Austin Bishop had one assist. Taylor Ferrino (five saves) and Kyle Lake (three saves) split time in goal for Western.

Have a recruiting commitment to report? Email us at info@laxlessons.com.

LAXLESSONS Links

Recruiting coverage

* Updated tristate recruiting review and commitment rundown (for classes of 2013, ’14 and ’15)

* Class of 2012 commitment rundown

* Recruit profile archive

* For a list of committed players with their profiles up, click here.

* To get your profile up, click here.

Connect with us

* Follow LaxLessons on Twitter by clicking here.

* Become a Fan of LaxLessons on Facebook now by clicking here.

Get in the game

* You can subscribe to LaxLessons.com’s playbook, featuring animated drills and plays for your team, by clicking here. 

Cast your vote in our latest poll

To vote, go to the right panel of this page. Then, scroll past the “New Comments” and “Popular” tabs and click on “Poll.” You will then see the poll questions and can cast your vote from the multiples choices, or, write in your choice if it’s not one of the choices.

Posted In: Empire State Games

If you liked this article, please take this time to share it with your Facebook friends using the Facebook button (see Facebook post button to the left) or retweet it using Twitter (see retweet button to the left). You may also want to follow us or subscribe to the site to stay up-to-date with this article. If you'd rather follow us from your Facebook account, join our Facebook fan page.

3 Responses to “Hudson Valley, NYC off to 2-0 starts at Empire State Cup”

  1. PureClassLax says:

    I really like the whole idea of trying this Empire Cup, but in my opinion it has no legitimacy since players are allowed to play for whatever regions they want. NYC’s two top goal scorers are from Ward Melville and the Choate school.

    I’m not taking anything away from NYC at all, good for them for getting these players, I just feel it won’t be a “true” Empire Cup unless players are playing for the regions they either live in and or play in. Obviously if you were to go to school in NYC but lived out of the city (i.e. the Ivy’s or the CHSAA) that would be fine, but having no connection to that region at all is tough for me to buy into.

    • LI101387 says:

      I’d have to agree, the NYC team has at least half a dozen really good LI players (Rastivo, Pate, Coughlin, Molloy, and others).

  2. kdog says:

    well doesnt that say even more abouut HV who has done it the right way without their best!!!

Leave a Reply