GCC Lacrosse Moves to Final Four
Written by WBTA STAFF on May 7, 2018
Andrew Forte (Pittsford) scored the first and last goal in Genesee’s national championship 22-4 quarterfinal win
Press Release:
No. 3 Men’s Lacrosse Team Moves on to Final Four
The No. 3 Genesee Community College men’s lacrosse team defeated No. 6 Ocean County College 22-4 to advance to their seventh National Junior College Athletic Association men’s lacrosse national final four in the last eight years.
The Cougars dominated their New Jersey opponent from Section XIX from the get-go with faceoff man Andrew Forte scoring just seven seconds into the contest. It was Forte’s first of 25 faceoff wins at an 88 percent winning rate and first of a team-leading 11 groundballs of his team’s 40.
The Cougars out-shot the Vikings by a 2-1 margin with 52 shots for and 26 against, and were potent on the man-up with five goals from five chances.
At the other end Garrett Lazore made six stops on eight shots on net for a 75 percent save percentage in his 30 minutes of first-half action.
Genesee had three different players score four goals each that included Kevin McParlene, Alex Mack and Jordan Brennan.
Both McParlene and Brennan co-led the team in points with seven, and with Evan Hollfelder also co-led the team in assists with three apiece.
Jason Chiodo had three goals, while Patrick Bilbrey and Forte added a pair each with the latter getting the first and last goal of the contest with the final goal mirroring his jersey number.
Single tallies came from Zach Wade, Tyler Thompson and Hollfelder.
Genesee next plays No. 2 Nassau in a national semifinal contest May 12 in Syracuse.
Baseball Team Records 12th Region Win in Finger Lakes DH
The Genesee Community College baseball team continues to roll after splitting a pair of games against Finger Lakes Community College May 5.
The Lakers were just the fourth region team in the last eight region doubleheaders to get a split with the Cougars. Genesee has been solid in region play the last four weeks with a .750 winning percentage in taking a dozen of their last 16 region contests.
Genesee completed its fourth doubleheader in the last six days by falling behind in both games against the Lakers. In the first game, Finger Lakes got runs in the first two innings, but the Cougars responded with all seven of their runs in the next four innings to take the contest 7-3.
Deion Rosalia had a career day with a third of the team’s 12 hits with four including a homerun. Rosalia also had six of the team’s seven RBI on the day. The next best performance at the plate came from Justin Baly, who had a pair of hits including a double.
Bryant Fontanez and Justin Taveras also plated doubles, with the latter picking up the team’s other RBI. Other hitters included Shannon Folkes, Jakob MacLeod, Andrew Shapiro, and L’Shandry Kirindongo, who scored a team-high pair of runs.
Zachery Zinck pitched all but one out in allowing a half-dozen hits and one earned run, while striking out seven in earning the win.
In the second game the Cougars fell behind again, but this time the team ran out of gas after rallying to tie the game at 2-2.
Baly had three of the team’s eight hits in the second game that included a triple with a pair of team-leading RBI. In addition, he scored two of the team’s four runs while four Genesee pitchers collectively allowed 13 earned runs of Finger Lake’s 17.
Folkes had a pair of hits with Shapiro, Jayson Libert and Fontanez rounding out the Genesee hitters.
Leah Herman after signing with Plattsburgh’s women’s lacrosse program
Women’s Lacrosse Team Has Plenty Of Positives after Playoff Elimination to NJCAA No. 1 Ranked Team
The Genesee Community College women’s lacrosse team knew it had an uphill battle in their region semifinal playoff contest against the National Junior College Athletic Association’s top-ranked and reining national championship team from Monroe, but that didn’t spoil the success the team has made this season.
For starters, the team doubled its win-total from a season ago and earned a post-season berth. Although Genesee wasn’t able to score on the nation’s top team last season, the Cougars did score five goals against Monroe this season in its final two outings. Genesee also held Monroe at bay by not allowing more goals than in its meeting last season.
In the first of the two seasons that head coach Jeff Reyngoudt had an eligible transfer player from his aspiring program; NCAA Division-III Plattsburgh became the first beneficiary of the program’s growth by signing Leah Herman.
The two-time, all-conference midfielder will receive a scholarship from the Cardinals and also captured the Cougar Award during her freshman season in an unsung hero role, while receiving her first Western New York Athletic Association Conference accolade in women’s lacrosse last season.
Herman became one of five women’s lacrosse WNYAC selections for this season along with teammates Molly Barden, Rachel Ladd, Kali Wright and Ashley Barclay.
The Cougars also placed two players on the all-region team in Barden and Ladd, and another pair in the NJCAA Region-III All-Tournament team in Ladd and Barclay.
In the semifinal Region-III playoff game against Monroe May 5, Ladd had a pair of goals with Barclay also netting a goal. Sara Zakes had a stellar performance with 19 saves from 47 shots on net.
