Birmingham ends Palisades' run of City Section dominance in boys lacrosse

Brandon Lopez celebrates after scoring against Palisades in the City Section boys' lacrosse final on Friday. (Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

One Dolphins dynasty continued while another came to an end Thursday night at Palisades High.

Two and a half hours after Palisades' girls team captured its fourth straight City Section lacrosse championship with a 20-8 trouncing of Birmingham, Palisades boys saw their streak of nine consecutive titles snapped in a 5-4 loss to the same school.

Birmingham’s boys had split two regular season meetings with Palisades, losing the first 6-5 and winning the second 5-4 in overtime and the rubber match was just as closely contested and even more physical.

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After Palisades’ Aidean Stuempfig scored to tie it 4-4 early in the fourth quarter, Jayden Ruiz’s goal put the visitors back in front with 6:43 left. Patriots goalie Christopher Cortes had a heroic performance, stopping an astounding 24 shots — the last coming one second before the final horn.

“Our team is amazing — we came here to win this and we did,” said Cortes, a sophomore who gave up soccer to take up lacrosse. “I like the adrenaline you get as a goalie and the feeling that you’re helping your team out. Even when I got scored on I didn’t let it get to me.”

Alexander Manton scored to tie it 1-1 in the first quarter. His second goal gave Birmingham a 3-1 lead in the second quarter. Albert Zometa and Brandon Lopez also scored for Birmingham (10-7), which upset Palisades 9-4 in 2015 for its only other City title.

Nate Silberberg gave the Dolphins (7-6) a 1-0 lead less than two minutes into the contest and scored again to narrow his team’s deficit to 4-3 late in the third quarter. Goalie Charlie Balatbat had eight saves for the Dolphins, who downed Birmingham 12-7 in the inaugural City final in 2014.