By Jaclynkelli Kronemberg
TopLaxRecruits.com, Posted 6/8/14

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. – Nicky Bonitatibus tallied two goals and two assists and Luke Palmadesso won 17 of 23 face-offs to help Yorktown claim a 10-9 victory over Jamesville-DeWitt for the New York Class B state championship Saturday at Hofstra University.

The Cornhuskers (18-5) won their seventh state title and their first since 2003.

“This is huge,” said Bonitatibus, “It has been 11 years since we have won this. This just means the world to us. Our defense stepped up, our crowd was just unreal and everyone was fired up for this game. This feels great getting this win as a senior.”

Yorktown jumped out to a 4-0 first-period lead, but the Rams (19-3) countered with four unanswered goals before Billy Strassman found Connor Vercruysse to give Yorktown a 5-4 lead with 3:59 left in the half.

Grayson Burns tied it early in the third period, but Kristopher Alvarado sparked a 3-0 run for the Huskers and the Rams never caught up.

With 5:20 remaining in the game long pole Austin Fusco grabbed a defensive ground ball, cleared the ball and scored giving Yorktown a 10-8 lead. Jamesville Dewitt made it interesting with 48 seconds left on a goal by Griffin Feiner, but Yorktown’s Palmadesso won the faceoff to seal the victory.

“This is the greatest feeling in the world,” said Fusco. “Being able to take this home senior year is the best feeling. On the last goal I just got the ball in my stick somehow and just ran. I tried to run as fast as I could, saving nothing for tomorrow.

“ I knew today was the last day we had so I tried to push it as hard as I could. It just so happened that I was able to take it to the goal, take the shot and the ball went in and it happened to be the game winner.”

Vercruysse tallied two goals, Nick Del bene tallied two goals and Austin Graham grabbed eight saves for Yorktown.

“Austin has been playing awesome all year,” said Yorktown head coach Dave Marr. “To have him come down and use his feet like that and finish that playoff for the game winner you just love to see that. I’ve been watching him make plays like that since the seventh grade so it’s nice to see him do it on a big stage like that.

“This win is tremendous. We worked very hard for this. We haven’t been back here for 11 years. This is a great feeling to have this team accomplish this.”

Grayson Burns tallied four goals and one assist, Griffin Johnson tallied four assists and Joe Morgan grabbed ten saves for Jamesville DeWitt.

“I think we had a lot of things that went against us,” said Jamesville DeWitt head coach Jamie Archer. “It’s tough coming down here and having things just not go our way.”

Yorktown 10, Jamesville DeWitt 9

Yorktown 4-1-3-2-10
Jamesville-DeWitt 0-4-2-3-9

YT: Nicky Bonitatibus 2G, 2A; Connor Vercruysse 2G, 1A; Nick Del bene 2G; Kristopher Alvarado 1G; Luke Palmadesso 1G; Austin Fusco 1G; Matthew Gonzales 1G; Billy Strassman 1A

JD: Grayson Burns 4G, 1A; Ryan McKee 2G; Anthony Digiovanni 2G; Griffin Feiner 1G; 1A; Griffin Johnson 4A; Brad Carr 1A; Ryan Durkin 1A

Saves: Austin Graham (YT) 8; Joe Morgan (JD) 10