After beating West Islip for the Long Island Class A Championship, the Dalers went up to White Plains on Wednesday, June 8 to take on Shenendehowa High School for the New York State semifinals. With temperatures on the field over 100 degrees, many line changes were needed to keep the players hydrated.
The Dalers came out hot, by scoring three goals in the first three and a half minutes. They lead 6-2 after the first quarter, 9-5 after two, and 12-7 after three quarters. Shenendehowa started a comeback in the fourth and got the score to 12-9 with five minutes left.
Mike Perettine and Sal Tuttle would score to give the Dalers a 14- 9 lead. The Dalers would defeat Shenendehowa 14-10 and go to the finals. Perettine had three goals, Korey Hendrickson three-goals/one assist, Greg Catalano three goals, Tuttle two goals/three assists, Brian Prendergast two goals, Joe Ostrander one goal, and Pat Starke two assists. Goalie Mike Palmer had 11 saves.
On Saturday, June 11 the Dalers traveled to Syracuse to take on the Ithaca Little Red for the NYS Class A Championship. The Dalers never won a State Championship game; neither did Head Coach Bob Hartranft in his 42 years of coaching the Dalers.
The Dalers quickly fell behind 4-1 in the first quarter. They had to regroup. To fall behind too much, could take you right out of the game.
The Dalers would come back with two goals to make it 4-3. But fell behind 5-3 after the first quarter. The Dalers would out score Ithaca 3-1 in the second quarter to go into halftime tied 6-6. The teams kept on keeping pace on each other. Tied again 9-9 after three. The Dalers had a upper hand up 11-10 with 41 seconds left in the game, but Little Red would score to force overtime.
It only took the Dalers 42 seconds for Starke to find Hendrickson open and score the winning goal for the Dalers and Coach Hartranft, giving them their first New York State Lacrosse Title, and Coach Hartranft his 654th career win.
Hendrickson had four-goals/one assist, Perettine four goals, Prendergast two goals, Starke two goals/two assists, Catalano two assists, and Tim Brown one assist. Goalie Palmer had 11 saves in this game and 56 saves in the playoffs to help the Dalers get crowned as State Champions.
