Albertus Magnus, Dobbs Ferry Ready For Rematch

With Albertus Magnus leading Croton-Harmon 68-32 late in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s Class B semifinal game at the Westchester County Center, a loose ball hit off an Albertus player and bounced toward the Falcons' bench.

Junior Matthew Dale raced toward the ball. Right before it went out of bounds, he dove to try to save it, sliding out of bounds after the ball and nearly into a table set up at the end of the bench where two large water coolers were positioned.

He angled himself just so his head didn’t hit the table and stayed in the game. Albertus ended up .

“He’s a gamer. He’s knocking on the door for more minutes. He’s gonna leave it on the floor,” said Albertus Coach Pat McFadden. “That’s a great example of how hard our kids play.”

The Falcons hard play all year has led them exactly to where they were last year at this time -- playing Dobbs Ferry in the Section 1 Class B championship game. Last year , with a 22-point performance by Tyler Sayre, giving the Falcons their first section championship since 1994.

On Wednesday, Sayre once again lead the way for Albertus, scoring 33 points, just two shy of his career high, to help the Falcons return to the final.

“It was a dominant performance by him,” McFadden said. “Obviously he had a bunch of points, but he rebounded for us and he’s been our go-to guy all year.”

Senior Arnell Dandridge said after Wednesday’s win he was sure people expected the Falcons to make return to the championship, but that nobody has higher expectations for the team than themselves. After the win, the other semifinal game hadn’t taken place yet, so the Falcons didn’t know their opponent. But Dandridge added that if they were to play Dobbs again, he’d be excited.

“It’s gonna be a big game and it’s gonna be a close game,” he said. “It’ll be a rivalry match.”

Dobbs Ferry did its part to return to the final by beating Blind Brook 64-38 in Wednesday night’s late game. But the win did come at a potentially hefty price for the Eagles. In the win, Dobbs Ferry’s leading scorer, sophomore Eric Paschall, was thrown out of the game after being given two technical fouls, which automatically results in a one-game suspension. He will miss the championship game.

Paschall scored 18.4 points a game during the regular season. The only other player on Dobbs Ferry averaging double digit points during the regular season was Thomas Fleming, who averaged 14.1. In the championship last year, Paschall scored 22 points against Albertus. Paschall was Dobbs’ leading rebounder and shot blocking during the season, pulling down 9.1 boards a game and rejecting 1.3 blocks a contest, respectively.

For the Falcons, point guard Pat McGuinness said if they want to repeat, they’ll need to get rebounds and push the ball up court. He added that they need to keep practicing like they’ve been practicing and playing hard in the games.

“Just do exactly what we’ve been doing," McGuinness said. "We’ve be doing everything that we need to do.”

Sayre added that what happened on Wednesday won’t necessarily carry over to Saturday.

“It’s going to be a completely different game,” Sayre said. “We’re just going to have to refocus and get prepared for a new team.”

And while it will be a new game, he added he thinks the two teams will be fairly familiar with each other.

“We played them last year, so we know what they’re going to do, they know what we’re going to do,” Sayre said. “We’re just going to have to execute again.”