March 19, the eve of Palm Sunday, sported sunny spring-like weather in helping to usher out the last days of winter while kicking off the official start of the Garden City Checkmate Sharks travel lacrosse team's 2005 campaign. The Sharks in their sophomore season, in playing outdoors for the first time this year, hosted an elite Long Island Express sixth-grade team at the C.W. Post campus in Brookville.

Sharks' defensive coach, Bob Jahelka, graduated C.W. Post in 1985 while playing football and lacrosse for the Pioneers. Interestingly, Jahelka, at that time, played for Coach John Danowski who has since moved on to coach nationally-ranked Hofstra for the last 10 years. Following C.W. Post's 16-10 drubbing of Bentley College, the Sharks took to the grass of Hickox Field looking to avenge a recent indoor loss to the Express just weeks ago at the STX tournament in Smithtown.

Garden City set the game's tone early as Steve Jahelka and Brian Coleman won all four first-quarter faceoffs, as the Sharks jumped out to a 2-1 lead on unassisted goals by Brian Coleman and P.J. Burnside. The LI Express, a select team of all-stars from both Nassau and Suffolk Counties, played a very physical and extended man-to-man defense that the Sharks were unable to exploit despite dominating possession. The Express were stifled in their few scoring attempts as defensemen Sean Mann, Austin Kufs and Tommy Adams effectively challenged each attack at the goal. Late in the second quarter, attackman Kyle Johnson capitalized on an overly committed Express defenseman and wrapped around from behind the cage to stuff home the go-ahead goal as the Sharks took to intermission leading 3-2.

The Express showed their mettle in blasting out of the gates to dominate the third quarter. Aggressive rides exposed the rust in Garden City's clearing game and only stellar goaltending by Al Castronovo kept the Sharks in the game. Down 4-3 in the fourth quarter, the Sharks, in their trademark fashion, stepped up their resolve and the momentum shifted. Suffocating riding by Matt Clarkson, Matt Confort and Charlie Garcia, along with determined clearing efforts by Mike LoFrese, Brian Porter, James Wright and Tim Noble, laid the seeds for a Sharks comeback. In a span of two minutes, Kyle Johnson netted his second and third goals of the game on nifty feeds from Brian Coleman and Devin Dwyer. The Express answered with a clutch goal, and with just minutes remaining in regulation, the score was knotted at 5-5.

Moments later, goalie John Bock made the save of the day in turning aside a point-blank Express shot, setting the stage for the Sharks game-ending drama. With just under two minutes remaining, a costly unnecessary roughness penalty on the Express provided the Sharks with the opportunity for victory. Garden City's man-up sextet of Kyle Johnson, Devin Dwyer, Brian Coleman, Tom Gordon, Shane Thornton and Steve Jahelka took to the field. After patiently working the ball around the perimeter of the Express defense, Johnson, from the right rear of the cage, found an open Jahelka at the top of the box who did not hesitate in bouncing a 12-yard left-handed shot over the shoulder of Express goaltender to give Garden City a 6-5 lead that remained static for the game's final minute.

Coaches Peter Coleman, Paul Hollis and Jahelka were most pleased with their team's resiliency in passing a very tough opening-game litmus test. For more Shark details and game photos, visit www.GCSharks.com.