Long Beach Boys Lacrosse Downs Lynbrook in Quarterfinals

Story by Joseph Kellard:

Long Beach went four-for-four on man-up; Lynbrook had a few shots hit the post.

This is a microcosm of how the day went Thursday for both boys lacrosse teams during a Nassau County Class B quarterfinals match in which senior midfielder J.T. Forkin led the Marines with three goals in an 8-4 win over the Owls at Hofstra.

Long Beach now advances to face top-seeded Garden City in the semifinals back at Hofstra on Tuesday. 

After going into halftime with the score tied 3-3, third-seeded Long Beach pulled away in the second half. Junior midfielder Josh Ayzenberg broke the halftime tie with an unassisted goal at 9:28 in the third quarter, followed by sophomore attackman Matt Varian scoring his second goal a minute later, putting the Marines ahead 5-3. 

The Long Beach defense and goalie Sam Weiss, who had 17 saves, never allowed Lynbrook to take a lead. Syracuse-bound Forkin scored the game’s first goal unassisted at 7:20 in the first quarter and, a minute later, had an assist on junior attackman Mike Breglia’s goal to go up 2-0. 

Second-seeded Lynbrook answered, tying the game at 2-2, on goals by junior midfielder Joe Grossi and senior midfielder Matt Murphy, who led his team with two goals and an assist. When Varian put the Marines ahead 3-2 with a goal in the second, Murphy scored his second goal to tie the game less than a minute later. 

The Marines kept the Owls scoreless in the fourth quarter with sophomore midfielder Chris Parler and Forkin tacking on insurance goals to seal the victory.   

Despite advancing to the semifinal round and breaking a school record with 15 wins on the season, Long Beach head coach Jim Kaspar thought his team fell short of playing to its potential. 

“We just didn’t have a good day and we’ve kind of been up and down all year the way we play,” said Kaspar, whose Marines sailed to an 11-0 start before their perfect season was ended by Garden City in a 8-5 loss April 30. 

“They threw the ball away a lot and did a lot of things to help us,” Kaspar said of Lynbrook. “I don’t think we played well and thought that we could have played better.” 

Lynbrook head coach William Leighley noted the number of shots that his players took that either missed the cage or hit the post. “It just didn’t work for us today,” he said. 

Last season Long Beach handed Lynbrook an early exit in the playoffs, defeating them in the first round. Leighley thought that inability to advance hurt his team Thursday. 

“Last year we didn’t get here, we got kicked out of the first round, and we didn’t get the experience,” said Leighley, who noted that his seniors did an “unbelievable job leading the team this year.”       

Long Beach’s semifinal game against Garden City Tuesday is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m. at Hofstra’s Shuart Stadium. Garden City defeated Long Beach by a 15-7 score in last year’s semifinals.