Jun. 6, 2014:  The Bronxville boys' lacrosse team will be heading back to the state championship on Saturday for a rematch with Cazenovia HS from Section 3. The Broncos defeated the Babylon Panthers 13-7 on Wednesday evening at Hofstra University in the semifinal championship.

The Broncos are only one game away from their season goal of winning the state championship. They came up short last year when Cazenovia beat them 13-11. The team has been thinking about going back to the state finals for a whole year, and the fact that they will go up against Cazenovia will provide extra motivation for the win.

In Wednesday's semifinal game, the Broncos came out very steady and were able to keep the lead throughout the first half. Junior Henry Grass was first to score, doing so four minutes into the game. But the lead was short-lived, as Babylon's Ray Wardell answered back a minute later. Will Duncan was able to score just before the end of the quarter, putting Bronxville up 2-1. Grass continued his attack, scoring early in the second quarter, and was followed two minutes later with a goal from Bronxville senior Matt Behrens. The Panthers quickly answered back three seconds later with a goal and scored again with two minutes left in the half. Bronxville goalie Andrew Harwood made an unbelievable save in the last five seconds to keep the Broncos up 4-3 going into the halftime break.

After halftime, Owen Jones won the first faceoff and sped down the field, immediately scoring for the Broncos. With seven minutes in the quarter, Ted Forst found the back of the net for Bronxville, and 90 seconds later Grass scored his third goal of the night putting the Broncos up by four.

Babylon scored later with 1:55 left in the quarter, but Bronxville was too tough for the Panthers and Grass scored again with 20 seconds left in the third quarter, followed by Michael Crawford scoring two times in the last twelve seconds, giving the Broncos a 10-4 lead.

Although the Broncos had a big cushion, they remained focused and scored three more times in the last quarter, winning the game 13-7. Bronxville had everything going for them in this game. They were patient with their goals and the defense was strong and fast. The team has a lot of confidence going into Saturday's state championship after this great win.

The state championship game will be played at 4:00 pm on Saturday at Hofstra University.

Pictured here: Goalie Andrew Harwood stops Babylon from scoring in state semifinals.

Photo by J. Murrer