Congrats to the Chaminade varsity red team for winning the LILJ Winter HS League defeating Mount Sinai in the finals...

"Only the second day of 2021 and already there is some good news on the scholastic sports front!!
Congratulations to Flyers Red on winning the ACC Division at the inaugural Long Island Lacrosse Journal Winter League...
Finishing the event (most of which was condensed into a week of games) with an overall record of 7-2-1, Chaminade rallied from the #3 seed by posting respective 9-6 and 8-5 victories on Saturday over 2nd-seeded Whalers (comprised of multiple schools with a heavy Cold Spring Harbor and St. Anthony's influence) and top-seeded Mt. Sinai...The first of the two triumphs avenged a previous 10-9 loss on December 28th.
Spearheading the offense with a team-leading six goals (including a hat trick and game-winner in an 8-7 quarterfinal win over Shoreham-Wading River) was Marquette bound Conor McCabe...The senior attackman scored three times today, netting a pair in the semifinals before adding one final strike in the championship game...
Concluding the week with five goals was the Crimson & Gold's extraordinary senior two-way middie, Ben Bonafede...The Bucknell commit may not have registered a goal in the finals, but he was a VERY big reason why the team advanced to the 'ship, as he posted a two-goal effort in the quarters on Thursday and followed it up with a mad hatter during this morning's semifinal round...
Sharing 3rd place honors among Marianist net rippers were two stud student-athletes who will continue their careers at the next level competing for Atlantic Coast Conference programs---Senior midfielder, Will Lynch (Notre Dame), and 2022 A/M standout, Charles "King Pluto" Balsamo (Duke)...Mirroring one another in all three "money matches", each struck once in the quarters and semis, and then combined for half of Chaminade's total output in the title game by logging 2gs apiece against the Mustangs.
The next in the line of great CHS face-off specialists, Machado Rodriguez (Yale), did more than his fair share during the course of the past week...Dominating the draws in all 10 appearances, the future Bulldog went above and beyond in the tournament finale, complementing his possession garnering work by scoring on two separate occasions to become the third Flyer with a multi-tally showing versus Mt. Sinai.
Matthew Rettinger (Wesleyan) had goals in the quarters and finals!
Tommy Casey (Marquette) and Grant Pearsall rounded out the list of playoff scorers for Chaminade, as they each had one in the semis.
Defensively, only one word would be needed to accurately describe the collective performance of senior quartet---Vincent Fowler (Duke), Andrew Rooney (Siena), Aidan Wagner, and Ryan Kiernan---and that term is LOCKDOWN!!!....
Pitted against the top-2 scoring offenses of the week in consecutive games, the unit successfully held Whalers (entered averaging 10.4) to six goals, and shined even brighter in the title contest, limiting Mt. Sinai (11.3 per game) to a modest five!!!
Alex Zepf (Notre Dame) and Dan Burger (Endicott) split time in the cage and were equally reliable down the stretch...The former [Zepf], who returned for the knockout portion of the week after missing the round-robin, handled 1st half duties, while his fellow senior was superb while acting in the role of closer!!!"