(Photo Credit: Daniel De Mato)
When a defending champion returns the next season, there is always a target on their backs, the one that opponents need to hit in order to defeat the champions.
That target will be on Shoreham-Wading River this season as the defending NYS Class C boys lacrosse champions return to action for their 2020 campaign. The Wildcats last played in Rochester when they defeated section 3’s Jamesville-Dewitt, 12-7, to win the championship last June.
When asked about this year’s lineup compared to last year’s head coach Mike Taylor said, “We actually only graduated five seniors last year and we are returning a significant amount of impact players.” Taylor knows he has a seasoned team with a ton of experiences to make the long run back to the state tournament. The players Shoreham-Wading River lost were attackers Dominick Visintin and Declan Beran, midfielders Anthony Cimino and Brett Calagy and defenseman Jake Meeker.
The Wildcats come into the 2020 season boasting a lineup that features 13 seniors that have already committed to playing lacrosse in college, 11 of which will be attending Division I schools. The seniors are Tyler and Jacob Schwarz (UNC), Jack Erb (Siena), Robert Magee (Penn State), Gavin Gregorek (U.S. Naval Academy), Nick Cacciola (Hartwick), Wil Cutinella (US Air Force Academy), Trevor Kessel (Michigan), Jake Wilson (Duke), Liam Daly (Stony Brook), Christian and Danny Mercado (Wagner) and Ryan Betcher (Cortland).
A fourteenth senior in Xavier Arline, one of the more sought-after athletes in the nation recently de-committed from UNC for lacrosse and has been receiving interest from several D I schools for football in the past month.
Because Long Island is a huge lacrosse community, many of the best teams in the nation can be found on the island which makes it difficult to be the very best with the amount of talent throughout the two counties, but Taylor believes his team can go all the way, “with the return of this much talent, the sky’s the limit.”
“It is extremely difficult to get off the island but that will be our focus,” Taylor added, eluding to making the trip up to SUNY Albany in June, which is the site for the 2020 NYS boys lacrosse championship finals.
In order for the Wildcats to repeat as state champions, they first have to play their regular-season schedule. Here are the ones to look out for:
The Wildcats start the season with two road games taking on Smithtown East on March 16, followed by a trip to Smithtown West on the 18. On May 9 the Wildcats will take on NYS class A runner-up John Jay-Cross River in a non-league matchup, a part of the 12th annual Lax out Cancer event. Shoreham-Wading River rounds out the regular season when they host Mt. Sinai on May 15.
