An Epic Comeback Win Caps Westlake’s Special Season

Time was quickly running out on the Westlake boys’ lacrosse team just as the last bit of daylight began to fade in last Wednesday’s Class D state semifinal game. The Wildcats faced a three-goal deficit with little more than two minutes to play, and the prospect of a victory seemed all but gone.

Then came the kind of finish that seemingly only occurs in dreams.

The Wildcats stormed back to score three times, tying the contest against Long Island champion Babylon on Rob DiNota’s goal with just nine seconds remaining. That set the stage for Kyle Donnery’s dramatic and decisive shot 44 seconds into overtime that lifted Westlake to a miraculous 11-10 win over the stunned Panthers at Adelphi University.

“It just shows the character of these guys on this team,” said Wildcats head coach Hunter Burnard moments after Donnery had completed the improbable comeback by reaching up over his head in front of the cage to slam home a high-bouncing rebound that decided the outcome. “There’s no quit. This is a special team.”

Even though the Wildcats’ quest for a state championship fell one win short when they lost to Christian Brothers Academy in Rochester three nights later, the final few moments against Babylon provided memories for them that will last a lifetime.

“You probably only feel like this once or twice in your life and it’s amazing,” said Donnery, who finished the contest with three goals and an assist. “I didn’t even see it go in. Everyone started chasing me and tackling me. I’ve never felt better in my life.”

Competing against a Babylon team that had just crushed Oyster Bay 13-4 for the Long Island title, the Wildcats fell behind by three goals early in the second quarter before using a 4-0 run to briefly gain the upper hand. But the Panthers answered with four straight goals of their own to build a 10-7 cushion. Scott Zeterberg’s second goal of the day with just 4:10 left on the clock capped the Babylon blitz and all but sealed Westlake’s fate.

But a similar unlikely comeback against a Section One foe midway through the regular season fueled the belief by the Wildcats that their battle with Babylon was far from over.

“Against Scarsdale with under two minutes left, we were down 10-7 and we came back,” said Burnard. “We tied it up 10-10 with 14 seconds left. So we had done it in the past. We knew we could do it again.”

James Gorman, who had scored one of Westlake’s three man-up goals under a cloudless blue sky in the first quarter, on a rebound of his own shot that gave the Wildcats their first lead of the game, was the player who jump started the late-game surge that shocked the Panthers. His goal with 1:58 remaining narrowed the Babylon lead to 10-8.

With just 34.9 seconds to go, sophomore midfielder Ryan Donnery got free on the right doorstep for his fourth goal and suddenly the Wildcats were within a goal again. The Wildcats then gained possession of the ball again and Burnard called a timeout to set up a play for DiNota with 19.2 seconds still on the clock.

“They’d been locking him off most of the game,” said Burnard about his star junior. “So we knew we wanted to start with the ball in his stick. He’s our go-to guy, our All-American. So it really wasn’t a tough call. He just steps up in the biggest moments. He wants the ball in his stick.”

On the restart, DiNota raced hard to his left, dodged his way past a pair of Panthers, then shifted his stick to his right and calmly slipped the ball past goalie Brendan Watt to tie the score.

“They were sliding really quick to me,” said DiNota, “so Coach told me to dodge off the whistle to my left hand and we were gonna pop James Gorman out to where I was dodging because, if they slipped to me, he would have a wide-open shot. But they just stayed with him and I beat ‘em inside and I just put it in the net. I found an open shot.”

“That was so exciting,” said Kyle Donnery of DiNota’s tying goal. “Rob’s a phenomenal athlete. I’ve been playing with him since third or fourth grade. He’s always one to come through in the clutch. Always.”

Soon enough, though, it would be Donnery’s turn to come through in the clutch. The sudden-death overtime session began with Babylon in possession, but down a man. It was Donnery who scooped up the ground ball near midfield that gave the Wildcats possession and set the table for their winning goal.

Out of a timeout, Westlake eventually moved the ball to Ryan Donnery on the right side of the cage. His lefty shot was stopped in front by a sprawling Watt, but the ball caromed straight up in the air in front of the cage where the opportunistic Kyle Donnery was there to all but slam dunk it into the open net before Watt could get back on his feet, setting off a Wildcat celebration that seemed impossible just a few minutes earlier.

“My brother (Ryan) had a second with his hands free,” said Donnery. “He took a shot and the goalie dropped low, popped it up. I saw the ball and I just started running to the crease. I smacked it in and all I was thinking was, ‘Don’t step in the crease. Please don’t step in the crease.’ Thank God I didn’t and we walked away with the win.”

“Again, they were locking Rob DiNota off,” said Burnard. “So we had a five-on-four situation. Their goalie made a huge kick save and it just happened to pop right up into one of our attackmen’s sticks, who was able to finish it. He was in the right place at the right time.”

Being in the right place at the right time became quite a challenge for Burnard the instant Donnery’s game-winning shot hit the back of the net. It seems he had a previous engagement – his own wedding –set for the same exact time Saturday’s state championship game was scheduled to begin. So as his giddy players celebrated nearby, Burnard was suddenly coming to grips that he wouldn’t be able to make the long trip to Rochester with them.

“We do have a slight schedule conflict,” he said in understatement. “Well, when we picked the date, obviously it was a long time ago and I didn’t anticipate. I didn’t even look into when the state championship game was. Toward the beginning of the season, then I started to notice that that date was a conflict. It’s just become more real as we’ve continued this magical run.”

Another magical run could be in the Wildcats’ future, so Burnard will probably try to keep his schedule free during next year’s state finals.

“It’s living a dream, living a dream,” said Kyle Donnery of what he and his Wildcat teammates have accomplished this season. “It’s amazing. There’s no words to describe this.”