St. Mary's varsity hockey team won their fourth New York State championship in five years over the weekend in Glens Falls. St. Mary's opened up with Lancaster from the Buffalo area and defeated them 6-3. Brian Boyle, Rob Scheer and John Keller each scored two goals.

In the second game of the preliminary round, goalie Mike Midea shut out Adirondack 6-0. Rob Scheer had a hat trick with Nic Neve and Brian Boyle each lighting up the lamp. The third game featured St. Mary's against arch rival Long Beach. The two teams had played two regular season games with St. Mary's winning the first 4-3 and salvaging a 6-6 tie in the second. This game was also a close contest with the scored tied at 1-1 with two minutes to go when Long Beach scored going ahead 2-1. But St. Mary's showed championship form when Brian Smith scored with 41 seconds left in the game. With two wins and a tie St. Mary's took first place in their division and was awarded a berth in the semifinals.

The final game was against a very tough Cheektowaga from Buffalo who had won their first three games. In a classic battle with only five penalties in the whole game, St. Mary's defeated Cheektowaga 2-1 in sudden death overtime for the exciting victory and a state championship. John Keller gave the Gaels a 1-0 lead with 11 minutes to play in the game. Cheektowaga tied the game with two minutes left and the game ended in a tie. The tense sudden death overtime lasted only five minutes when Rob Scheer converted his own rebound for the big goal of the year.

Not many people had given the Gaels a chance to win this year, but smart play and mental toughness when necessary paved the way for a very gratifying championship.

As Jimmy Buffet sings, A Legend Never Dies, and with that in mind the Garden City Boys Lacrosse team will make its annual sojourn to the confines of the Manhasset High School Campus to add the latest link in a chain of lacrosse games that is 65 consecutive years old and has a wingspan of 106 games.With a split in 1998, Manhasset leads the series to date 63-43. However, since 1985, Garden City holds the edge 14-7, winning 10 straight from 1985-1992.

The Manhasset High School Booster Club is proud once again to present "A Day of Lacrosse" on Saturday, April 3, kicking off with a JV Girls Lacrosse game at 9:30 a.m. This game will feature North Shore versus Manhasset in what should be a closely fought contest. The Manhasset JV girls are led by Coach Brandy Schnitzer and are always competitive.

At 11:30 a.m., North Shore's Varsity Girls Lacrosse team will take the field against a highly spirited Manhasset Girls Varsity Lacrosse team in what could be an emotionally charged game. The Lady Indians, under new coach Tom Campolettano, are a disciplined focused outfit.

The marquee game of the day will be the aforementioned Garden City versus Manhasset game, slated to face-off at 1 p.m. Although young and somewhat inexperienced at certain positions, Coach Alan Lowe believes the team will be up to the challenge of keeping the "Wood Stick" in the Manhasset trophy case. The "Wood Stick" is passed on to the winner of the regular season game each year. It is a most eye-catching award and represents the oldest high school lacrosse rivalry in the country.

Awards to the winning team, offensive and defensive players of the game, will be presented in the JV and Varsity Girls game as well as the Boys Varsity game, courtesy of the Manhasset Booster Club.

Surrounding these games will be a series of PAL youth games orchestrated by Bill Martocci and Rich Reichert.

The day of festivities will conclude with the annual Ken Molloy alumni Lacrosse Game, approximately 30 minutes after the boys varsity game. We are sure Ken will be looking down and watching for some aggressive and spirited play. All are welcome to participate, but there is a warning to the older guys from John Kasselakis and Blake Miller to "wear lots of pads."

Refreshments will be served throughout the day, prepared by some world-class chefs, so bring your appetite, enough money to purchase a fantastic T-shirt to commemorate the day and watch some dynamic lacrosse play.

All sponsored by the Manhasset Booster Club, second to none in the support of Manhasset athletics.

Oh, and the weather. We have it on the best authority, an accomplished meteorologist from Garden City named T.C., that it will be a beautiful day.