Watching Yeshivah League championship games was a refreshing sight, considering we had gone three years without one. But what eight teams and four champions delivered across basketball and hockey made the drought worth the wait.
VARSITY HOCKEY:
The TABC Storm and Frisch Cougars renewed their New Jersey rivalry for the first time inside a varsity hockey final. Despite dropping both regular-season meetings to the Cougars, the top-seeded Storm were the favorites entering March 13th at Ben Porat Yosef. AJ Seplowitz notched a hat trick, and through 29 minutes of play, the speed out of the Torah Academy of Bergen County had worn down the size of Frisch and was just 6:14 away from a second straight title nursing a 3-2 lead. But as they had done all season long, the Cougars wouldn’t go down quickly. Will Trump turned and fired one home to even the game at three with 6:13 left, where at that point in the contest, the momentum was with Frisch, who now allowed their contingent of partisans to hoot n holler. Aspiring to embrace the moment, the Storm applied offensive zone pressure, but Andrew Srulowitz was sharp in net to keep it tied. With 4:01 to go, Ethan Alter fired one on goal, but the rebound came out to Jacob Feit, who put in his second of the evening(Also scored the second Frisch goal) for the go-ahead tally to put his team in front for the first time, which became a permanent advantage. A couple of minutes later, the man who started the Frisch scoring and one regarded as perhaps one of the best in school history transcended them to the top of the mountain and solidified them as champions. Captain Sam Weinberg, while falling, roofed the puck over the TABC goaltender before roaring from his knees to the Frisch faithful, who rushed the court moments later to soak in their well-deserved Yeshivah hockey glory.
JV:
In a much-anticipated matchup, DRS and undefeated TABC met at Frisch on March 15 for the championship. The meeting was a rematch from earlier in the season, where the Storm handed the Wildcats their lone loss on the year 4-3 in overtime. The contest was tight the entire way, with goals mainly at a premium for both goaltenders were outstanding. Still, ultimately it was DRS with the thrilling 2-1 win to salvage their fall sports season with a championship, while TABC went 0-2 in this year's hockey finals.
JV BASKETBALL:
The Northshore Stars and MDY Warriors met in the rubber match of their season series for the title. Magen David(10-2) entered as the overall four seed, having dispatched the Stars(9-3) in blowout fashion earlier in the season before Northshore got their
revenge with a 42-40 home victory in the campaign latter stages. The Warriors took the “New Jersey” playoff route, overcoming league giants in TABC(53-47) and Frisch(69-51) on the Cougars court. Northshore, meanwhile, had won two straight road tilts over Ramaz(53-49) and Flatbush(35-32) and entered the Yeshiva university gym seeking one more to top it all off.
The Stars began the game blazing from beating the arc while MDY looked overanxious, which led to sloppy play and an 18-7 Northshore lead. The Warriors would adjust and increase their physicality and urgency in the second, which led them to force turnovers and produce points, allowing them to slice into the deficit. But towards the halftime break, a couple of buckets by Northshore, including a Ben Amazada 25 foot three-point buzzer-beater, had them up 28-20 going into intermission.
The second half saw both offenses at a snail's pace with the hard-nosed defense that a championship game brings out in full force, so the Stars were still comfortably ahead 37-30 with 2:50 remaining. But seven straight points, including the last five by Alfan Shiloach, tied the score, with his momentous trey with 1:26 left, sending Warrior nation into a frenzy. Both teams had numerous chances down the stretch to win it in regulation but couldn’t convert, so the game naturally moved into overtime.
The extra frame boiled down to execution, especially at the free-throw line where Magen David left some points to be desired, and Northshore took advantage, building a quick 41-37 lead. It was 46-41 before Jack Haber laid one in with 28 seconds to keep Magen alive. But it was only after Amazada missed two free throws, which would’ve salted the game away with 9.4 seconds left, and the Warriors got the ball back having three timeouts in their pocket did MDY fans start to feel it was destiny, and that somehow, someway they would follow in the footsteps of great school champions that had come before them. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t come to fruition on this night as a Warriors three-point attempt clanked off the rim as the buzzer sounded, allowing the Northshore faithful to stream court and celebrate their well-earned and hard-fought championship run.
VARSITY:
In a battle of two Western Conference foes, the Ramaz Rams and SAR Sting provided a compelling finale to a varsity basketball season that always felt like it was up for grabs. The course of the contest and the events of the waning moments were a testament to what has been a year not many will soon forget.
The Sting(15-1) led 26-10 in the low-scoring final, which was indeed the theme of the Western conference this year, and it seemed that the Rams(14-2) had selected the worst possible time for their offense to go into a dry spell. But then their two stars in Julien Rubenstein and CY Aminzadeh converted, and Ramaz crawled back into the game. Down 11 at the start of the fourth, Ramaz needed a hero, and that came in the form of Aminzadeh, as the man who began the season on the bench due to injury recused his teammates and went on a rampage for 12 straight Rams points, keying a 12-2 run which brought them within 28-27 inside the final minute of the contest. After the Sting couldn’t convert from the charity stripe, which was instrumental in their horrific collapse, CY sank the game-winner with 12 seconds left to give Ramaz a 29-28 lead and would hold up after a potential SAR game-winner hit the front rim and the celebration was on at center court. For the Rams, their season was defined by an emphasis on defense and just enough offense to get through the gauntlet of a season, especially the postseason. They used home-court advantage in that little gym to perfection and showed will, determination, and perseverance en route to a memorable championship victory.
As for the Sting, this was a devastating defeat, for they looked the part of the better team all night, yet couldn’t tie the bow around the trophy and left it for Ramaz, who grabbed the championship. Yet, the top-seeded Sting can reassert themselves to the prestigious Sarachek tournament on Thursday, March 24, at Yeshiva University. The game consists of the top 24 Yeshivah basketball teams in the nation and is a bracket-style five-day tournament. The championed Ramaz Rams were seeded seventh.
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