On Saturday, May 31, the Monroe Woodbury Crusaders traveled in a steady rain to the FDR High School field in Staatsburg to take on the Vikings of Valley Central for the second time in 10 days.
This time it was for the Section 9 Class A championship and the Crusaders left with a berth in the opening round of the state playoffs.
The Crusaders entered the game with a 12-4 record after beating the Vikings in their last game 18-6.
The Vikings came into the championship game with a 10-7 record after beating Kingston in their last game 11-10.
They struck first and took a 1-0 lead just 45 seconds onto the game but the Crusaders scored the next three to take a 3-1 lead. The Vikings kept coming on and again tied the score with 4:22 left in the quarter.
The Crusaders then scored the next 3 with Freshman Luke Damiani scoring his second of seven goals in the game as the Crusaders took a 6-4 lead at the end of the first.
In the second quarter, the Crusaders offense kept scoring, this time John Gennaro led the attack as he scored two of his four goals in the game and the Crusaders had a 12-8 half-time lead.
In the second half the Crusader defense shut down the Vikings with defensemen Joseph Buchanan (four ground balls) and Goalie Tyler Baisley (10 saves on the day) holding them to two second-half goals.
In the fourth quarter, the Crusaders ran away with the game as Senior, Ryan Behringer added a goal and an assist to his three goals and six assists totals in the game.
The Crusaders impressive 21-10 Section 9 Championship victory gives Head Coach Steven Brown his third consecutive Section title and puts the Crusaders into the State playoffs.
The Crusaders will travel to Union-Endicott High School on June 7 to face Corning-Painted Post in the opening round of the state playoffs at 3 p.m.