The third time was the charm for Leonia as the Lions upset heavily favored Cresskill 8-2 thanks to a near no-hitter by Lions pitcher Ethan Graynor.

"They beat us 10-1 here and 14-3 at our place," Graynor said. "We just didn’t come to play. But we came to play today."

"I’ve seen it happen too many times, and I don’t care what sport," said Cresskill coach Al McLaughlin. "Third time around; sometimes your players become complacent. We beat them by 20 runs in the two games. Our guys just came and said we’re supposed to win the game."

The Cougars started pitching ace Ian Oates for this important contest, but he struggled from the outset. He got out of the first after yielding an infield hit to Austin Levy.

Leonia scratched out a run in the second inning when catcher Jeremy Kaplan led off with a double to left, moved to third on an infield out, and scored on a Ryan Yomens base hit.

The Lions added two more in the third. Levy singled to left, stole second and scored on an infield error. Graynor, who made it all the way to third on the error, scored on Kaplan’s triple to left.

Cresskill, meanwhile, was doing nothing against Graynor. Brian Fisch walked in the first inning, but was thrown out attempting to steal second.

That was it.

"He was on fire," coach Dino Eliopoulos said of Graynor. "His fastball was popping from the first inning. When he gets his velocity up and gets loose he is very hard to hit. He was spotting his fastball in and out, which was keeping Cresskill off balance."

"It all comes back to the frame of mind that we were in," said McLaughlin. "We thought we were going to waltz into the next round and before they realized they were in a ball game, it was too late. I think we are a much better team than that."

It got worse for the Cougars in the Leonia fifth. Levy singled to right and Graynor and Victor Dume walked to load the bases with one out. Kaplan knocked in a run with an infield hit, his third hit of the day.

"We were very selective," said Kaplan. "We went up with a good approach. I have been struggling at the plate. I went up looking to drive the ball to right field."

Uri Mascat plated two more runs with a single to right and that was it for Oates as Brian Fisch came in to pitch.

Fisch got Yomens on a fielder’s choice as the seventh Lion run crossed the plate. He retired the next batter to end the inning.

"He’s (Oates) a quality pitcher that was starting to get out of his zone and we weren’t chasing balls," said Eliopoulos. "He relies on guys to swing at pitches out of the zone and we were taking pitches and sitting on the fastballs down the middle.

"Even when the count was in his favor, he couldn’t get the curve ball over and we knew it. He became a one-pitch pitcher after that and they sat on his fastball all day. They made him pay for it."

Eliopoulos was coaching in place of head coach Steve Perrotta, who had flown to Texas to adopt a baby girl. Eliopoulos said Perrotta was called away unexpectedly in the middle of the night.

"He flew out in the middle of the night," said Eliopoulos, "and called me the next day and said, ‘You won’t believe this but I’m in Texas.’ You and Coach Jennings have to coach the game.

"The kids played inspired today. Coach [Perrotta] gave them a little pep talk via speakerphone on the bus and the kids really reacted to it."

Graynor made it all the way to the seventh inning before he gave up a hit, a one-out "dunker" by junior Mike Furrer, just past the infield dirt in right field.

"I’m not going to lie, I was disappointed," said Graynor. "I really wanted it bad. I never pitched a no-hitter in my entire life."

"I give all the credit in the world to that kid," said McLaughlin. "He’s pitching a no hitter until Furrer drops that little ball into right field. We knew he could be a good pitcher. You can’t take strikes. You have to go up and hit.

"We saw them play twice and we knew their fielding was a little suspicious even though they fielded beautifully today. Our game plan is go up and hit. That was our game plan. Something got lost in the translation. We took way too many strikes. All of a sudden we’re hitting with an 0-2, 1-2 count on us."

The game was extended a bit in the Cresskill seventh when the Lions made a pair of infield errors and the Cougars capitalized, scoring two runs.

"They are a great team and if you give them extra chances they are going to jump on it," said Kaplan. "We gave them a few extra chances in the seventh and that’s when they scored some runs. If you make errors you have to get back on the horse and keep playing."

Graynor retired the final two batters after Furrer’s hit, to close out the victory.

"I had a feeling," Graynor said. "I felt really good and I knew I was going to throw a game like this. As a captain I had to pick this team up. We knew we could play like this all along. I’m just thankful we played like this at the right moment."

"Ethan (Graynor) is my best friend," said Kaplan. "When we were in middle school he would pretend he was pitching to me and I would catch it and we would jump up, saying, ‘Leonia wins a state game.’ This is a lot better than what we imagined it felt like.

"I talked to Ethan last night and I was saying how the season didn’t go exactly the way I wanted it to go but it will all be forgotten with a big state win. If we play well everyone will remember this game. And that’s what we did."