The Cabrini’s men’s lacrosse team protected their home field and rolled over Centenary College by a score of 18-3 on Tuesday, May 1, to advance to their 13th CSAC championship in school history.
It will also be the Cavaliers’ 12th straight appearance in the title game. They have won the previous 11 CSAC championships for berths into the NCAA tournament.
The win gives Cabrini an overall record of 14-2 as well as a 7-0 record in CSAC play.
Freshman attack Damian Sobieski was the star of the game with five goals and seven total points. Junior attack Bobby Thorp added five points and freshman attack Mike Leyden contributed four.
“We knew they’re a good team and it’s a semifinal matchup in the CSAC,” Erick Zarzecki, junior goalkeeper, said. “We knew that we just had to come out fired up and you can see in the second quarter, we laid on 10 and that’s what just broke even.”
Zarzecki leads the nation in goals against average and allowed just three goals while posting nine saves in Tuesday’s competition.
Senior defenseman John McSorley had a season high of six forced turnovers that adds to the Cavaliers’ defense caused 15 turnovers.
“If we don’t win this game, then we’re pretty much out,” Zarzecki said. “We have to win out to make it to the NCAA tournament. That’s our mindset going forward – if you lose, you go home.”
The Cavaliers started off slow but Sobieski was able to score with 2:20 left in the first quarter. After that, the Cavs were able to find the back of the net without a problem.
“They find a point in the game where they just kind of get on a run,” Colfer said. “You never know when it’s coming and every coach in our conference has said the same thing, we just start winning face-offs, pushing the ball in transition and good things happen.”
The Cavaliers outscored the Cyclones 11-1 in the second quarter, seeming putting the game out of reach.
Cabrini didn’t slow down after halftime, even though they had taken the lead away from the Cyclones. Less than three minutes into the second half, DiSanzo added his second score.
The Cavs just had a 20-6 win at Gwynedd- Mercy College last Saturday. They are going to have to go out prepared to win and ready to play. That’s what it comes down to come playoff time.
“The way we look at it, it’s a two-game season and we prepare for each game,” Colfer said. “We came in ready to play Centenary and put in some things for them but also getting ready for Saturday. That’s our mentality; that’s our focus.”
Cabrini will be competing on Dixon Field this weekend when they take on CSAC opponent Gwynedd-Mercy College, on Saturday, May 5. The Cavs won their first meeting with Centenary College earlier this month by a score of 19-5.
“We divide the season into three parts,” head coach, Steve Colfer said. “The regular season is the first part, the conference playoff is the second part and if we’re lucky enough to get through that, then the NCAA tournament is our third part.”
But first the Cavs must take care of business in the CSAC Final. The Cavs are keeping themselves level-headed as they prepare for the game.
“We have to play better than we did today, better than the last two times we played each of them,” Colfer said. “We want to be peaking now going into the middle of May for the NCAA Tournament. We got some things we need to be working on for the next three days to get ready for Saturday. I feel good about our group and I think we’ll be ready.”
