Kennedy Boys Lacrosse Holds on to Edge Out Mineola, 10-9

Senior midfielder Matthew Gavigan scored his only goal of the game with 40 seconds left to lift Bellmore JFK to a 10-9 win over Mineola Thursday at Kennedy High School.

"We shot ourselves in the foot (against Hewlett)," said assistant head coach Jim Femminella before the game. "So this is a very important game for us to get back on track."

Improving to 4-2, the Cougars might well be back on track. But they almost shot themselves again in the process.

Despite racing out to an early 5-0 lead on a quick flurry of goals from junior attackman Zac Shuldiner (three goals) and senior midfielder Joe Stagliano (four goals), Kennedy was outplayed by a hungry and more focused Mineola squad for much of the contest.

"Right now, we are not passing or catching very well in transition at all," Femminella said during an early second half timeout. "We built our early lead playing six-on-six. That's where we're beating them. Let's settle it down and get good shots."

This accurate message was ignored. Kennedy spent the entire third quarter playing outside their comfort zone, failing to score a single goal with an uncontrolled "run and gun" approach. With these failures, frustration began to set in.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Mineola found themselves enjoying no less than five consecutive man advantage situations and rattling off four straight goals at one point. The turning of the tide left the Kennedy bench slamming its gear, stomping its feet and cursing themselves - and each other.

Through it all Kennedy head coach Craig Papach kept himself above the fray. He did not let the antics slide, but he did not over-indulge the bad behavior either.

"We have to win the right way," he told his team late in the fourth quarter. "We can't showboat. We can't act out. We just have to play lacrosse the way we practice it, the way we were taught."

The Kennedy offense finally got the message as the situation grew more dire. When Mineola finally tied the score with 5:48 remaining, the Cougars woke up.

Junior goaltender Patrick Grillo (12 saves) stopped a final Mineola flurry and secured the ball, allowing the Cougars to methodically advance into the Mineola box and calmly set up their half-court offense, running it patiently and perfectly until Gavigan hit pay dirt to break the tie and seal the win.

"We were very lucky to get out of here with a win," Papach told his team after the final horn. "Today we were doing things we don't normally do. Not taking to coaching, talking back to the officials. That's not us. It's starts with the coaching and flows through you guys. You guys have to buy what we're selling. We have some things to fix, and that starts tomorrow at practice."