Long Beach boys’ lacrosse won a slugfest at home Wednesday, turning back a stiff Syosset challenge in what coach Jim Kaspar termed “typical Class A” Nassau County lacrosse.
“Syosset is a good lacrosse team, and they play a physical game,” said Kaspar after the 13-7 win. “But that’s Class A lacrosse -- it’s a tougher conference. Teams like Garden City and Wantagh, that’s a finesse game. A is physical.”
“They won the ground balls, they made us make mistakes,” said Syosset coach John Calabria. “Long Beach put themselves into a position to win. It was a good physical game.”
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Though the game was relatively penalty free, it was executed at a high physical and emotional pitch, and a number of players on both sides took their share of bumps.
Syosset (5-3, 7-6 overall) came out with determination, scoring within two minutes when John Diaz took advantage of a defender’s slip and scored. Long Beach (7-2, 10-3 overall) retaliated at 7:55, in a man-up situation, when Connor Sofield found Joseph Radin open.
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It wasn’t until six minutes into the second quarter, with the game knotted at 2-2, that the Marines got untracked.
Beginning with Tom Hamlet shooting into an open net from thirty yards out, Long Beach was off on a 9-2 run that put the game all but out of reach for the Braves.
To their credit, Syosset didn’t cave at 10-3. A 3-1 run, punctuated by goals for Robert Storrie, Ryan Hunter and John Diaz, narrowed the deficit. But with 4:26 remaining, Tom Hamlet found James Forkin open for Long Beach’s goal number 12 — and a quick move at 2:37 from Connor Sofield, playing isolation behind the net, sealed the win for Long Beach.
The goalies for both teams did yeoman’s work: Mike Rourke notched 10 saves for Long Beach, and the combined work of Matt Alessandri and Ryan Feit in the Braves’ goal accounting for 12.
James Forkin led Long Beach with 6 goals. Six other Marines scored, including Hamlet (2), and Connor Sofield, Jake Shapiro, Blake Gregor, Joe Radin and Shaun Bogart. Syosset was led by Diaz, Storrie and Ryan Hunter, with 2 goals apiece. Frank Buffalino and Brett Meisel each chipped in one.
“The situation tonight was a battle of the wills,” Calabria said. “It came down to who wanted this game more. Long Beach did.”
Said Kasper: “We have a young team, a lot of juniors. They’ve all been playing together since second grade. But I think tonight they played their best game of the year.”
