Brewster Lacrosse Team Finished 2010 Season Strong

BREWSTER—The Brewster High lacrosse team recently closed out the spring season after going 9-10 overall, but the Bears came up with some of their best performances when it counted most – in the playoffs.

Above: Andrew Nicol. Right: Tim Meyer. Photos by SKIP PEARLMAN. Brewster entered the post-season as the No. 10 seed in the Class B tournament, and knocked off No. 7 Eastchester in the first round, then took out second-seeded Mamaroneck in the quarterfinals, setting up a semifinal showdown with No. 3 Somers.

The Bears gave the Tuskers a scare, tying the game at 4-4 late in the third, before a decisive run by Somers resulted in a 7-5 Tuskers win.

“I was happy with the season, we definitely improved as time went on,” Bears coach Michael Honey said. “I was definitely happy about the way the kids improved. It was a nice group. And we were playing well at the end. Mamaroneck and Somers were probably the two best games we played all year.”

Four Brewster players received postseason honors. Senior attackman and team captain Tim Meyer, who led the team in scoring with 59 goals and seven assists, and senior goalie and team captain Andrew Nicol were both named to the All-Section and All-League teams.

“Tim brought two things to the table,” Honey said. “He was a finisher – he had multiple games with five goals. And he was also a good leader – the type of kid who enjoys playing the game. He’s also a kid who was a joy to coach. He had a great season. And Andrew was a very good goalie throughout the year, and was outstanding in the sectionals. He played great against Mamaroneck, and was phenomenal against Somers. He played his best during the sectionals. He’s also a great leader, and controlled that end of the field. He and Tim are both quality kids.”

MJ Garrity (27) and Zach Salvia (19) celebrate a goal. SKIP PEARLMAN Senior midfielder Zach Salvia was named to the All-Section Honorable Mention team, and junior long stick middie Trevor Smith took home All- League honors.

“If you know lacrosse, you’d say Zach was our MVP,” Honey said. “He does a lot of things that may not show up on the score sheet… he gets a lot of ground balls. He almost single-handedly brought us back to beat Pleasantville in the fourth quarter. He’s an energizer. And Trevor is fairly new to the sport, this was his first year as a defensive middie, and he became outstanding at the position. He played the opponent’s best midfielder in each game, and he held (Somers’) Matt Dieana to no goals. He is extremely coachable, and I am thrilled to have him back.”

Honey also mentioned solid contributions from seniors Kevin Farrell, MJ Garrity, Ray Bednarczyk, Julian Zuluaga and Matt Heintz, and junior Paul Dingee.

Zach Salvia SKIP PEARLMAN “The seniors gave us leadership. And they were all very steady, all of them had a nice season,” Honey said.

The Bears lost eight starter to graduation recently, including Nicol, and will be looking to fill a lot of holes next spring.

“I think we’ll be good defensively,” Honey said. “We have some good players returning. And we’ll be extremely young, we’ll have a lot of sophomores. This was not a big junior class, so we’ll have a lot of question marks.”