RIDGEFIELD, Conn. - The postseason is about to begin, but the Ridgefield Tigers boys lacrosse team has already entered uncharted waters this season.
For the first time in the team’s history, the Tigers have beaten the FCIAC’s most storied programs — Wilton, Darien and New Canaan — during the same season. Plus, their 11-4 win over Wilton on April 11 marked just the second time Ridgefield had beaten the Warriors after they broke the ice with a victory last year.
On May 14 at a jam-packed Tiger Hollow, Ridgefield’s Matt White scored with 42 seconds remaining to beat defending FCIAC and state Class M champ Darien, 8-7. It was the Tigers’ first win over the Blue Wave in 25 years, a stretch which included some dismal performances, including a a 24-0 shutout back in 1999.
Matt White, Ridgefield
Photo by Dave Stewart
The Tigers also beat New Canaan, 8-4, at Dunning Field on May 19, and knocked off Greenwich for the fourth time in two years, 12-8, on April 25.
Ridgefield now enters the postseason as the state’s top-ranked team and carries the No. 1 seed in the FCIAC after going through the conference schedule unbeaten. The Tigers will host the upstart WesthIll Vikings when the playoffs begin on Wednesday, May 27.
Having beaten all of the league’s major players hasn’t made the 15-1 Tigers overconfident, however, as Ridgefield heads into the postseason ready to complete some unfinished business from last year.
“The way we see it, anybody can win on any given day,” senior tri-captain Colin Scott said. “We saw that last year when we beat Greenwich three times in a row when they thought they were hot stuff. We’ve just got to play our best lacrosse every game because you never know who wants it more. We’ve got to play hungry every game.”
Having lost in the FCIAC and state Class L finals last season has kept the Tigers’ stomachs growling with hunger this spring. They upset top-ranked Greenwich in the 2008 FCIAC semifinals, but fell to Darien, 13-9, in the final. Two weeks later, the Tigers and the Fairfield College Prep Jesuits played a classic, with Prep eventually outlasting Ridgefield in triple overtime, 15-14, of the Class L final.
This year, they’re being led by head coach Roy Colsey, a former All-America midfielder from Syracuse, who most recently was head coach at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, N.Y.
Colsey’s Tigers have had a great season so far — their only loss is to New Jersey power Lawrenceville and that was by one goal at 12-11 — but the players were not overjoyed with the way they finished the regular season.
“We were just out there, doing what we do and playing lacrosse,” senior tri-captain Matt White said after a sluggish win against New Canaan. “Unfortunately tonight we didn’t play our best game, but we’ll be there. We’ll fix the things we need to fix.
“We have a lot of talent — talent upon talent,” White added. “We just need to have a little more grit and a little more anger. We need to play with a little bit more pride, myself included.”
Ridgefield beat Fairfield-Warde, 15-3, to close out the regular season and should be back on track for the playoffs next week.
The memory of last year’s championship game losses are still fresh in the minds of the players involved.
“Losing both the FCIACs and states last year, we really wanted to make it our goals this year to win both and get back at those teams that beat us,” Scott said. “So far we’ve done that. We haven’t been playing well — the past couple of games we’ve been kind of letting up a little bit, but we’re going to have to pick it back up once it gets towards the playoffs.”
The Tigers would appear to be able to turn the switch on at any moment, as they’re loaded with talent and offensive firepower, and have had a defensive unit step up after a few key losses from last year.
Ridgefield has four players who are bound for Division I colleges, a group headlined by White, the nation’s sixth-ranked senior according to Inside Lacrosse Magazine. White, who quarterbacked a strong Tiger football team the past three seasons, will be playing lacrosse at the University of Virginia next spring.
Also on the way up is Scott, who will play at Denver, while senior tri-captain and midfielder Matt Baker heads to Colgate, and senior midfielder Brendan Walsh will play at Fairfield University.
On offense, the Tigers have five players who have racked up 40 or more points in 15 games.
White leads the group with a 5.1 points per game average. He’s scored 36 goals and has a team-best 46 assists, as defenses tend to key on him, opening the door for his teammates.
Scott has 73 points and a 4.9 per game average, which includes a team-high 46 goals and 27 assists.
Junior attack Mike Galione is next with 37 goals and 21 assists for 58 points, while Walsh has 39 goals and seven assists for 46 points, and Baker has 24 goals and 20 assists for 44 points.
On defense, goalie Jake Hyatt was a key addition last year, after he spent the last two years playing with the Tigers’ varsity golf team. Hyatt stepped back into the picture with the graduation of Brad DePrima.
The defense is led by long pole D-men Peter Vredenbergh and Mike McKnight, both seniors, and Matt Shannon, a sophomore. Shannon replaced senior Jon Mirra, who was lost for the season with an ACL tear. Also starring for the defense is long stick middie Casey McKnight, a junior.
Along with Mirra, the Tigers have had to contend with a season-injury to junior midfielder Duncan Morrissey. The Tigers’ faceoff specialist was knocked out of action because of a torn quadriceps.
Ridgefield has handled those hits and come through with a 12-0 record in the FCIAC.
Few of those victories could compare to the game with Darien, as the Ridgefield had only beaten the Blue Wave once, way back in 1984 when the Darien program was in its inaugural season. The Wave is now the State’s perennial leader, and has won eight of the last 11 FCIAC titles.
Darien played a slow-down, possession-oriented game and had a 7-5 lead with 5:43 when Walsh scored back-to-back goals, including the equalizer off a pass from White with 1:38 on the clock.
White made a dramatic play for the final goal, taking the ball from behind the Ridgefield net, carrying it up the left side of the field and making a couple of spin moves before scoring just under the cross bar with 42 seconds remaining.
Hyatt was one of the game’s big heroes, as he racked up 17 saves and kept the Darien offense in single digits.
White had two goals and four assists, Walsh scored four goals, Scott had two assists, and Baker and Galione each scored once.
For Darien, goalie Andrew West made 10 saves, Jon Bolton had a hat trick, Chas Brickman had two goals and two assists, and Brian Annecchino, Case Matheis and Tyler Foley each scored once.
“We were prepared — we knew what we had, we knew what they had and we knew what we had to do to win,” Scott said. “They played a good game and held the ball a lot. They held us to very few possessions, so we were just lucky we were able to put a few in on them whenever we had a chance at the ball.”
“That was a great game,” White said. “We didn’t really play our best but neither did they and we found a way to win it in the end. It’ll be completely different in the postseason. I’m sure they didn’t show everything they’ve got and I know we didn’t show everything. It’ll be a good one in the postseason.”
FCIAC lacrosse tournament field set
The FCIAC playoffs will get underway Wednesday with quarterfinal games at four sites.
Top-seeded Ridgefield (12-0 FCIAC) will host No. 8 Westhill (7-4) in a night game, while No. 5 Greenwich (8-3) faces No. 4 New Canaan (9-3) in a 4 p.m. game at New Canaan’s Dunning Field.
On the other side of the bracket, No. 7 McMahon (7-5) will play at No. 2 Darien (11-1), while No. 6 St. Joseph (8-4) plays at No. 3 Wilton (10-2).
The semifinals are scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. Friday, May 29, at Brien McMahon High School, with the finals to be held on Tuesday, June 2, as part of a doubleheader. The girls lacrosse final is scheduled for 5:15 p.m., with the boys final to follow at 7:30 p.m. at BMHS.
Dave Stewart, the Sports Editor of the New Canaan (Conn.) Advertiser, is a MaxPreps.com writer and photographer. He may be reached at 203-966-9541 or at sports@ncadvertiser.com
