The Dragons on the sidelines were no longer watching the field. They were focused on the scoreboard clock, which was spitting out the time in tenths of a second. As the numbers got close to zero, the players got tired of waiting. They bolted onto the playing area, raced down to the Cornwall goal and piled on top of one another in celebration. They had just won the section championship.
The improbable victory of the boys’ lacrosse team is our top sports story of the year. The players and their families raised funds through the fall to have lacrosse introduced as a varsity sport.
On April 3, the team opened the season with a surprising 7-1 victory at Newburgh. Less than two months later, the Dragons, with a 13-2 record, entered the playoffs as the top seed in their class.
On May 28, they faced Wallkill in the championship game at Middletown’s Faller Field. The Panthers scored first, but it was their only lead of the afternoon, The Dragons answered with three straight goals on their way to a 15-8 victory.
The triumph capped a long year for the new champs. It started with their showing up at school board meetings to campaign for lacrosse becoming a varsity sport.
Once the board said “yes,” the boosters had to raise money to pay for a boys and girls varsity, since there was no allowance for them in the budget. The girls, with an extremely young team, showed promise of moving up in the future.
What was Cornwall’s best team of 2013? The question could prompt a lively argument. The football team reached the state semifinals for the third straight year, and had a chance to take the lead in the closing minutes against Queensbury.
The volleyball team reached the Final Four in Glens Falls for the fifth time in six seasons. Along the way, the girls beat all the top teams in Section IX, regardless of size.
The girls cross country team also laid claim to being the best in the entire section, as it finished ahead of the bigger schools in winning the OCIAA meet for just the third time in Cornwall history.
Special kudos to Cornwall’s Kei Kullberg who won a national skiing championship in March, and to Kyle Auffray who earned a tryout with the Arizona Cardinals football team.
