As is annually the case, it was another great FCIAC boys’ lacrosse season.
Ridgefield won the 2025 FCIAC Boys Lacrosse Tournament championship, Staples and St. Joseph won state titles a couple weeks later, and conference teams Staples, Darien, Ridgefield, and New Canaan ended up being ranked 1-through-4 in the Final 2025 GametimeCT Top 10 Boys Lacrosse Poll.
One example of the strength and competitive balance of those perennially strong FCIAC programs in this particular year was that Staples beat two fellow conference teams by one goal in the semifinal and championship games to win the Class LL state title for the third time in the last four years.
Staples won the 2025 Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class LL Boys Lacrosse Tournament with a 7-6 victory over Darien in the championship game after advancing there with a 10-9 semifinal victory over Ridgefield to avenge being eliminated by Ridgefield in the FCIAC semifinals.
The semifinal games in the FCIAC tournament were also very close. Ridgefield advanced to the championship with an 11-9 victory over Staples and New Canaan won a 7-6 double-overtime thriller over Darien.
Chris Colsey had four goals and an assist, Levi Kessler also scored four goals, and Dylan Penn was superb in goal with 14 saves as they led Ridgefield to its second FCIAC championship in school history with a 12-7 victory over New Canaan on May 29 at Wilton High School’s Tom Fujitani Field.
Brandon Penn, Dylan’s twin brother, had a goal and an assist, and he played a vital role in securing ball possession for the Tigers with his success in winning faceoffs.
Brandon Gmelin and Liam Kristan also had a goal and an assist for first-year coach James Goldmann’s Ridgefield Tigers.
Matt Reed, Carson Roeder and Grey Wildman each scored a pair of goals and goalies Cam Lyden and Jackson Crowell both had four saves for New Canaan.
The FCIAC had a combined 17-7 record (.708 winning percentage) from its nine teams in the two largest state tournaments.
All four semifinal teams and five of the eight quarterfinal teams in the CIAC Class LL tournament were from the FCIAC and the conference had a combined 10-6 record from its seven teams in the 14-team field.
Tristan Schaefer had three goals and an assist, Adam Udell also had a hat trick, and senior goalie Josh Marcus, the state’s consensus Player of the Year, had a dozen saves to lead Staples to Class LL state championship with the 7-6 victory over Darien.
There were no goals by either team in the fourth quarter. Darien juniors Ben Bilodeau and Jack Marisca both scored two goals to lead the Blue Wave. They helped Darien take a 6-4 lead early in the third quarter before Staples scored twice shortly thereafter to tie it up at 6-6.
Udell caught a pass from Nick Weil and netted the eventual game-winning goal with 1:05 remaining in the third quarter.
Darien goalie George Persinger (seven saves) helped keep the Blue Wave within one goal of Staples when he shut out the Wreckers in the final quarter.
Coach Will Koshansky’s Staples Wreckers needed an incredible comeback in the semifinals to advance to the Class LL final.
Schaefer scored the dramatic game-winning goal with just 2.6 seconds remaining in regulation as the third-seeded Wreckers scored five goals in the game’s final 4:49 in their 10-9 semifinal victory over second-seeded Ridgefield.
Coach Jeff Brameier’s Darien Blue Wave avenged that double-overtime loss to New Canaan in the FCIAC tournament semifinals with an 8-5 victory over the Rams to advance to the Class LL state tournament championship game for the second consecutive year.
Bilodeau had four goals and an assist while Persinger had 11 saves to lead the victorious Blue Wave. Ryan Thurlow, Max McBride, Connor McNamara and Will Brenner each scored a goal, and senior defenseman Mark McNamara had a great all-around game for No. 4 seed Darien.
Darien’s victory prevented New Canaan’s Rams from pulling off a three-game sweep of their bordering town rivals as the Rams beat Darien by an 8-4 margin in the regular season prior to their 7-6 double-overtime victory in the FCIAC semifinals.
Cole Campisi and Wildman both scored two goals to lead New Canaan’s offense. Lyden had seven saves, and Crowell stopped six shots in goal for coach Chip Buzzeo’s top-seeded Rams.
The two FCIAC teams in the CIAC Class L Boys Lacrosse Tournament were the top two seeds and they squared off in the championship game.
Paul Karafa had four goals and two assists, and Sean Archibald had a hat trick to lead No. 2 seed St. Joseph to the school’s eighth state championship with a 10-5 victory over No. 1 seed Fairfield Ludlowe.
St. Joseph goalie Michael Coletti was solid with eight saves, Colin Scali had two goals, and Forest Greiner scored a goal for the champions.
Lawson Leibrock had a hat trick to lead Fairfield Ludlowe. E.J. Johnson and Tucker Champagne each scored a goal and goalie Harry Geary stopped six shots for the Falcons.
There were 10 FCIAC players who were recipients of the highest levels of posteason honors possible as they were all selected to the 2025 GameTimeCT All-State First Team, an All-FCIAC Team, or a Connecticut High School Coaches Association All-State Team.
The nine players who all made the All-FCIAC Tier One First Team, GameTimeCT All-State First Team, and CHSCA Class LL All-State Team were Josh Marcus, Adam Udell and Tristan Schaefer of Staples; Will Hayes, Bryce Lyden, and J.T. O’Neil of New Canaan; Ben Bilodeau and Mark McNamara of Darien; and Greenwich’s Mikey Brescia.
St. Joseph’s Sean Archibald was chosen to the GameTimeCT All-State First Team, the All-FCIAC Tier Two First Team, and the CHSCA Class L First Team.
The FCIAC had 11 of the 12 total players selected to the GameTimeCT All-State First Team as Ridgefield’s Brandon Penn made that team as well as being chosen to the All-FCIAC Tier One First Team and CHSCA Class LL All-State Second Team.
The 13 other players who made the All-FCIAC Tier One First Team were Jake Carney, Christopher Colsey, Des Couri and Jack Kirchner of Ridgefield; Grey Wildman, Cole Campisi, Ryan Leahy and Brayden Robie of New Canaan; Ryan Thurlow, Max McBride and Wes Scallen of Darien; Max Hill of Staples and Greenwich’s Colin Zeller.
The FCIAC designates the six perennial strong programs of Staples, Darien, New Canaan, Ridgefield, Greenwich and Wilton as Tier One teams and the nine other conference schools as Tier Two teams.
There were 23 players selected to the All-FCIAC Tier One First Team, 20 players made the All-FCIAC Tier One Second Team, 21 players were on the All-FCIAC Tier Two First Team, and another 36 players from both Tier One and Tier Two programs were All-FCIAC Honorable Mention.
Charlie Clark, Justin Halky, Cam Prior, Nate Maurillo, Bear Swearingen, Erick Skolnick and Shane Sandrew were the seven Staples Wreckers selected to the All-FCIAC Tier One Second Team.
Ridgefield had four selections in Levi Kessler, Walker Fiore, Jack Schoenherr and Dylan Penn. The three Wilton Warriors picked to the All-FCIAC Tier One Second Team were Charlie Calabrese, Connor McAndrews and Joey Hagerty.
The other six players on the All-FCIAC Tier One Second Team were New Canaan’s Henry Hladick and Finn Roeder, Darien’s Jimmy Benedict and Jack Marisca, and Greenwich’s Boden Farmer and Teddy Johnson.
The Class L state champion St. Joseph Cadets and Class L runner-up Fairfield Ludlowe combined to have 15 of the 20 players selected to the All-FCIAC Tier Two First Team.
In addition to Archibald, the six other St. Joseph Cadets chosen were Paul Karafa, Eli Restrepo, Caden Mitchell, Jason Pagano, Julien Jacques, and Mikey Coletti; while the eight Fairfield Ludlowe Falcons were Ryan Grooms, Lawson Leibrock, Mason Neely, Wes Feher, Jacob Cohen, Alec Mertz, Matthew Morris and Owen Mureebe.
The other five players on the All-FCIAC Tier Two First Team included Ian Duggan, Chris Restaino and Justin Bacco of Stamford; and Trumbull’s Reg Campbell and Matthew Greene.
Staples received all 11 first-place votes as the unanimous choice for the No. 1 ranking in the Final 2025 GametimeCT Top 10 Boys Lacrosse Poll while leading the group of seven FCIAC teams ranked among the top eight.
The top-ranked Wreckers finished the season with 17-5 record after their 7-6 victory over second-ranked Darien (13-8) in the Class LL state championship game.
The rest of the teams in the final Top 10, in order, were No. 3 Ridgefield (17-4), New Canaan (18-3), Fairfield Prep (14-8), No. 6 St. Joseph (15-6), Greenwich (11-7), Fairfield Ludlowe (15-6) of the FCIAC and Glastonbury (17-3) were tied for the No. 8 ranking, and Class S state champion New Fairfield (21-2) completed the Top 10.