This is the final in a series of blogs submitted by Connor McAdorey, a 16-year old Rising Junior at American Heritage in Delray Beach as he competed in the just completed Maccabi Games.  For those who are not familiar the Maccabi Games are an annual gathering of Jewish athletes in Olympic-style action.  We thank Connor and his family, which are very involved in local lacrosse community, for agreeing to produce this for us and giving our readers at FLN another insight into how the sport of lacrosse continues to grow.  Don’t be surprised if 8 years from now someone from this year’s Maccabi event doesn’t show up on Team Israel for that tournament.   Special Thanks to Jeff and Laura Gottlieb awesome host parents and photographers – who treated Quin, Jason, and I just like family… and to Larry Palumbo of Coyote Magic Action Shots for cheering us on!   For the 2014 Maccabi Games my team known as the, Legends would play teams from:  Chicago, Long Island, South Jersey, and Baltimore. The Rising Stars, our younger Fort Lauderdale team would play the same teams as both teams competed through a play-in round for seeding, playoffs and ultimately championship brackets.     The opening game of the Lacrosse Tournament saw our Rising Stars or younger team competing against the team from Long Island. Long Island had returned only one player from their team last year, Hayden Edelson of Great Neck #20 arguably the best player on the field for Long Island.  Our Rising Stars team by contrast had no veteran Maccabi players and was much younger in age.   However, our Rising Stars players played together as a team moved the ball well and with some great plays by Max Brown, Justin Oletsky and Jack Young they pulled off the upset, coming back 4 goals down with five minutes left to beat Long Island! As a program we cheered them on but quickly had to prepare for our first game against Chicago while the Rising Stars would play their second game against a combination team from South Jersey. The South Jersey team actually featured players from Philadelphia, Orange County, and South Jersey on their roster. The Rising Stars team lost a hard fought game and ended the day 1 and 1. Our Game against Chicago was at the same time and ended up being little tighter than we had expected. But in the end The Legends behind great plays by Shane Kreutzer, David Tescher, and the Bernstein Bros. defeated Chicago by 6 to win their first game. After an interesting lunch with the girls from the Great Britain Lacrosse Team we boarded the bus to head back to the field to play Long Island in the second game of the afternoon. While definitely better prepared and focused on getting their first win, Long Island could not score enough goals to beat us; we won by 5. We notched our second victory of the day and moved into Tuesday 2 and 0.  

A picture from the opening ceremonies event with some of the girls swimming team from the San Francisco and Orange County delegations

  Tuesday morning had the most anticipated play-in game of the week and that was the Baltimore team or B-More vs. the Fort Lauderdale Legends. It was indeed a tight game with back and forth scoring and both teams never getting more than two up on the other. Our face-off man Kevin Horwitz played well controlling more than 90% of all face-offs against B-More’s FOGO from Israel. However poor shot selection hurt us, and they were effective on doubling Josh Bernstein and David Tescher when they were in.  However we pushed through to overtime on a great clear and finish by Eric Savotinsky; but with a controversial goal at the end of the overtime, B-More was able to keep their streak alive and we fell to 2-1. Tuesday afternoon we played the Composite Team from South Jersey and with the game well in hand by the Third Quarter our coaches called for both teams to put their sticks in the middle and we split the teams and played for fun and for rachmanus. With the play-in round complete the Rising Stars had a record of 1 win and 3 losses and the Legends had a record of 3 wins and one loss; giving our programs the fifth and second seed respectively. Wednesday morning would see the Legends get a bye and the Rising Stars would have to play South Jersey; where they would get a shot at redemption and the opportunity to play Baltimore if they won…  

Kevin Horwitz of the Maccabi Fort Lauderdale Legends Team wins a faceoff against Benor Buniel of Ashqelon, Israel playing for Baltimore during the JCC Maccabi Games

  For the Rising Stars game on Wednesday we showed up as a program.  We warmed up as one team and as that team we prepared the Rising Stars to play a composite team that they had lost to by 6 only two days earlier.  AND WHAT A GREAT GAME it turned out to be. Our Rising Stars goalie, Jack Young, stood tall and made some great saves. The defensemen, Bryce Daub, Bryce Nabridge and Jacob Shiff played hard – our midfielders, Cole Becker, Andrew Hurowitz, Drew Hoffman and Justin Oletsky carried the ball and moved the rock effectively but in the end it was play by Max Brown, Adam Brodsky and Ryan Goldstein that closed the game in our favor.  Goldstein came out of the box and took a feed from Brodsky to tie it up with seconds left in the fourth quarter. Overtime. With almost the same play that tied it minutes before, Ryan Goldstein got the ball from Max Brown face dodged his defender and scored! The Rising Stars upset South Jersey! On the opposite field Chicago also won in overtime defeating Long Island and setting up the Semi-Final Matches:  Baltimore vs. FL Rising Stars; and FL Legends vs. Chicago.  The winners of the Semi Finals would advance to the Gold Medal Game and the Losers would advance to the Bronze Medal Game. On Thursday morning both FL teams took opposite fields to play their Semi-Final games.  Unfortunately Baltimore would make quick work of our Rising Stars forcing them into the Bronze Medal game where they would face… Chicago.  Chicago had played well against our Legends team but could not keep up with the hustle of our middies Shane Kreutzer, Jordan Schwartz, Noah Reimer, and Kevin Horwitz.  

Late Night Dinner Monday Night in Philly – Cheesesteak Challenge Accepted

  Our Rising Stars would play solidly against Chicago through the first half and into the third but despite a four goal performance by Adam Brodsky and heroics by Max Brown and Justin Oletsky they could not get past Chicago.  Chicago would become the 2014 Maccabi Bronze medal winner, their first Maccabi Lacrosse Medal as a delegation. For the championship; B-More would line up against Fort Lauderdale, and once again it would be a back and forth battle. Our defensive players and goalie played outstanding David Landess and Eric Savotinsky each had a crucial goals and Jason Wyner was a wall in goal. Kevin would dominate the face-off X, The Bernstein Bros would work their cannons from the outside while Reimer and Schwartz would contribute goals from the inside. David Tescher and I would play, “give and go” contributing 8 goals and 8 assists between us as we worked slip picks and inside finishes against the Baltimore defense. Again it would be Wyner who would stuff B-More at the end of regulation and twice in the first OT. We would move into the second OT and eventually go man down before getting back doored and losing to Baltimore a second time. Including last year that would be the fourth time we lost to Baltimore by one and every game in OT. While a silver medal was not what we wanted it was well earned and well respected by the Baltimore team who knew that they game could have easily gone in another direction…  and indeed the Baltimore delegation would award Josh Bernstein the Minot medal for good sportsmanship for the 2014 Maccabi games.  

International and Domestic Relations – Rising Stars players lunch with the Great Britain Girls Lacrosse Team . . .

  This was my last Maccabi Games as a player, I leave the games with two silver medals and a bronze; but most importantly with some great friendships and memories.  I was fortunate to not only share these games with my brother and my father, but with some of the players who I started with three years ago:  Jason Wyner, Eric Savotinsky, David Tescher, Noah Reimer and Josh Bernstein. I was also fortunate this year to by joined by my friend Quin Spey and to have made it off the Injured Reserve after having been injured two months prior. Judaism like many religions cherishes traditions and the passing of traditions from generation to generation.  I know that what was started in 2012 is in great hands with our Rising Stars Team and with some of the younger members of our Legends team.  Players like Jack Young, Jordan Schwartz, Jake Bernstein, Andrew Hurowitz, Cole Becker, Ryan Goldstein, Justin Oletsky, Adam Brodsky, Drew Hoffman, Bryce Daub, Jacob Schiff, Bryce Nabridge, David Landess and Kevin Horwitz will take Maccabi Lacrosse to the next level when South Florida hosts the games in Davie next year.   FLN thanks Connor and all those who helped him to put together this series for our readers!