The Wallkill boys’ lacrosse team won the Section 9 Class C championship last year, and that’s where the season ended.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of two years’ worth of New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships.

If they can find a way to repeat this year, however, there will be opportunity to advance as the state tournaments were restored this year.

However, if they’re going to repeat, they’ll have to do it without some of their top players from last year as all-American goalkeeper Dylan Jowell and leading scorer and All-Section attackman Chad Castle have both graduated.

The Panthers have also lost all-section defenseman Tyler Jaffee and 2nd-team all-section long stick midfielder R.J. DeSantis.

That doesn’t mean the Panthers won’t return plenty of talent.
Returning are all-section faceoff midfielder Austin Palen and all-section midfielder Ty Crowley, who scored 13 goals and 25 assists. Crowley has 84 career points (29 goals and 55 assists).

Also returning are Colin McCartney, Richard Martinez and David Goll.

Defensively, Miguel Lopez will return as a close defender, along with all-section defensive midfielder Dominic Pelella.

“We should be competitive again,” Wallkill’s fifth-year coach Alex Danon said. “We return (many) starters on offense.”

The Panthers also will welcome newcomers on close defense Carson Frisbie and Andrew Vincenzo, long-stick midfielder Mason Ondreyko, attack/midfielder John Canavan and goalie Alec Petrocelli-Henry.

Petrocelli-Henry will compete with Michael Locicero for time in the goal.

“I am looking forward to the season,” Danon said. “We return an experienced group who are looking to continue our success from last year. Our entire class (Class C) should be very strong this year, so every game should be a battle.”

Valley Central
The Valley Central Vikings have lost eight seniors from the team that went 11-7 in 2021 and reached the Section 9 Class B championship game, where they were beaten by the top-seeded Warwick Wildcats.

But they return plenty.

Cameron Prutzman will return in goal and Ben Caterina will return on the defense. Longstick middie/defender Carter Laughman also will be back. Dan Latimer and Bryce DeRonda will return in the midfield, while Gavin Starr, Kevin Acevedo, Kyle Stafford and Connor Stafford return on attack.

“We have another solid core of seniors leading the way this year,” sixth-year coach Tom Stoddard said. “Defensively, we have experience and offensively we should be pretty athletic this year.”

The Vikings will fill out the roster with defensive newcomers Tyler Adkins, Liam Kelly and D.J. Livingston. Midfielders Kai Hew, Jack Sherry, Bryson Antal and Josh Webb will join the team, as will attackmen Noah Hofman and faceoff man Aaron Goldstein.
Stoddard said he hopes the Vikings will build off last year’s success and play their best lacrosse in May when the postseason begins.

Pine Bush
The Pine Bush Bushmen advanced to the Section 9 Class A semifinals last season, where they saw their season end with a loss to the Kingston Tigers.
They Bushmen have lost seven seniors from that team, including captains Josiah Cruz, Kevin Godinez, Clifford Budney and Jack Galloway.

They return Alec Gorman, Danny Degroodt, Joseph Darrell, Trevor Zupetz, Dominick Masi, Evan Jaloszynski, Joseph Rosploch, Nickolas Zwart, Tyler Ostrom, Anthony Greco, Colin Carey and Dion Cauthen.