Team Rochester Takes Home Brogden Cup
from press release
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Coming in off a two hour plane
trip to Orlando Florida, one would think that the sunshine state is
going to hold up to it's reputation: sunny, warm, and everything
Disney. Well the forecast for the Orlando area was just the
opposite of what someone could expect. While temperatures did not
reach the all-time record low of 19 degrees in Orlando (January
1985), it did however dip down into the bitter, low 20s. No matter
how harsh the weather, it was nothing that these two groups of guys
couldn't handle in competition for the 2010 Adidas Brogden Cup.
The Brogden Cup dates back a generation and has seen such greats
as the Dave Pietramala, Gary and Paul Gait, Sid Smith, and Tom
Marechek just to name a couple. This event was formally played
between post-collegiate club players from their respective
countries. The newer basis of the Brogden Cup is more geared for
pre-collegiate players. Brogden Cup Director and Coordinator Joel
Franklin explains, "This has evolved into an event which allows
U-19 players who do not have the opportunity to compete against
really competitive international competition, being that the U-19
world games are held every four years, this takes place annually
which enables those with an unfortunate birthdays to be able to
experience some really good international play".
This year's matchup, like last year, was determined by the annual
Adidas National Lacrosse Classic, which hosted 20 different teams
and about 500 top high school lacrosse players from across the
nation. From Southern Cali to New England and everything in
between, these teams were all fighting for the privilege to
represent the U.S. in competition for the Brogden Cup. This year,
like last, the privilege goes to a group of young guys from
Rochester, New York and they were set to compete against a scrappy
bunch of U-19ers from Ontario, Canada. Canada's team is selected
annually through the Ontario Junior Men's Lacrosse League (OJMLL)
which holds their own selection process from the 22 different teams
that they facilitate. A couple of the OJMLL alumni include all time
NCAA Division 1 goals leader Zach Greer and Adidas own John Grant
Jr.
The events got underway Friday, January 8th with a conjoined team
dinner at the housing facilities, followed by a trip to the first
ever Indoor Lacrosse game in Orlando. The forty-two players were
introduced and honored at halftime for their progress on making it
to the Cup. Although the two teams had a great time at the Orlando
Titans match, who has recently moved from New York City (see
Insider John Jilhoty's report on the game), they knew that they had
a tough task ahead of them.
The day got off to a sluggish start as the weather was an unusual
slick mix of sleet, hail, and rain. But by time game one was ready
to go underway at 12:15 eastern, the weather died down and was left
with only 10mph winds and a chilling 30 degrees. Rochester is
looking to avenge the U.S. as they have lost the past three years
in a row to the dominant Canadian squads. The game started out
relatively slow in the first quarter as the weather and nerves
might have been influential. The sole first quarter score was
posted by a Syracuse commit, Hakeem Lecky who dodged through the
Ontario defense and stuck one off hip on the Canadian keeper. The
second quarter held a lot more action as the Rochester team took a
marginal lead with some great team play in between the lines.
However Team Ontario would find their footing in the second quarter
to cut the lead to 6-5 Rochester going into the half.
The second half would not fare so well for Ontario as some
superb stops from the 6'2" and 220-pound Tyler White of Rochester
held the Canadian sharpshooters to just five goals in the second
half. White would finish with 17 stops on just 26 shots. White said
that his size definitely helped him out, especially with some of
the point blank shots he saw. Ryan Yunker of Rochester would lead
all scorers in the first game with 3 goals and 2 assists.
Because of the cold weather the second game was moved up to escape
the ever dropping temperatures. The second game got off to a
similar start, the only change being that it was Ontario that was
hitting the net. The big stories in this game were the incredible
goalie play of Alex Boque who faced a barrage of shots from the
Rochester offense and was able to make 20 saves throughout the
second mach. While Alex was taking care of business on the
defensive end for Ontario, Virginia commit Mark Cockerton was
getting busy on the other end of the field as he lead his team with
five goals in the 14-8 victory over the team from the "Roc". Reilly
O'Connor and Nathan White each had a hat trick in the second
meeting which sent the series into a rubber match which was played
the following morning to determine the winner of the 2010 cup.
Devin Alvis and Hofstra bound Torin Varn each posted 3 goals for
Rochester in the second outing.
This brought in the determining third "all or nothing" game of the
series after the two teams split the first two games. As seen in
the first two match-ups, faceoffs were key to getting points on the
board and just as he did in the first game, Kenny Tomeno, handled
the "X" extraordinarily. The soon to be Red Fox at Marist College
accumulated over 40 successful draws over the three game period and
17 ground balls as well as three goals to boot. Rochester took the
lead in the first quarter and never looked back. The second quarter
was an outstanding one for the Rochester offense as they posted
seven goals to go up 10-3 at half.
By the end of the third quarter the score appeared similar to that
of the second game in last year's series which also had Rochester
up going into the last quarter however as the final whistle sounded
it was the Roc that would fall as Ontario notched a game winner
with 6 seconds remaining. Rochester was determined to stay away
from any déjà vu this year though. They kept their
lead into the forth and set it on cruise control behind the
excellent goaltending by Tyler White and his army of what seemed to
be impenetrable defenders. White would only see 28 shots and
managed to get his stick on 21 of them allowing only seven goals
for the Canadian natives.
The final of the rubber match was 14-7 as the Team Rochester
doubled up on Team Ontario for the victory and the rights to this
year's Adidas Brogden Cup. Kenny Tomeno was accredited with the
Rochester team MVP for his efforts in ball possession and overall
scrap and on the other end Ontario's Alex Boque was given team MVP
for his stellar play between the pipes. Boque's 20 saves in the
second game as well as a crushing body check to stop a one on one
opportunity and his effort in the final match sealed up his
award.
Deven Alves led the Rochester team in total points with nine (7
goals, 2 assists) while Hakeem Lecky and Ryan Yunker each posted
seven points. Jack Hinderland had six points (5 goals, 1 assist)
,and Torin Varn tossed in six goals.
Mark Cockerton led Ontario with nine points (8 goals, 1 assist), including his five-goal effort in game two and Nathan White had a total of eight points (3 goals, 5 assists). David Lintner contributed to Ontario's efforts with 7 points (4 goals, 3 assists) and Reilly O'Connor tacked on 6 goals of his own. In addition to the honor of being the winners of the 2010 Brogden Cup and the Brogden Cup medals, each Rochester team member each received G awards on behalf of Gatorade and Ontario received this year's runner-up Brogden Cup medals.
