PLAYOFFS: Cyclones Soar Past Owls, 12-4

South Side knocked off Lynbrook, 12-4, in Monday's quarterfinal at Hofstra University, earning the Cyclones a semifinal match-up with Garden City on Wednesday.

Peter Clark, Bryan Gerrato, and Zach Scaduto each scored hat tricks for South Side (11-5), while its defense shut down Lynbrook's (9-7) usually freewheeling transition play. Cyclones goaltender Dominic Moriarty made 13 saves.

South Side coach Steve DiPietro said that Lynbrook has eliminated his Cyclones two years in a row, and that the players used that as motivation to take down their cross-town rivals.

"We knew it was going to be a battle and I'm very proud of the way the kids responded," he said. "They wanted to make sure it wasn't three years in a row, and they showed it on the field."

Lynbrook came out firing in the first quarter, with star midfielder Luke Spitzer ripping several shots high of the net before getting one by South Side goaltender Dominic Moriarty four minutes in. But Cyclones attack-man Peter Clark answered just one minute later, ripping a shot over the right shoulder of Owls goaltender Ethan Mirenberg to tie the score at 1. South Side never trailed again.

Down 6-2 at halftime, Spitzer pulled Lynbrook to within three with just over three minutes gone in the third quarter. The Owls even held South Side scoreless for the first half of the quarter, but the Cyclones would explode for four goals in the quarter's final five minutes.

The offensive surge was a back breaker for Lynbrook.

"They're always good," Lynbrook coach Bill Leighley said of South Side's team. "You just gotta find your opportunity to score and we didn't do that tonight. We couldn't score any in transition and that's kind of our nature — that's how we have to score."

South Side takes on Garden City (14-2) at Hofstra University tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. .

But despite being the obvious underdog in the game, DiPietro said that's not necessarily a bad thing.

"We're certainly not the favorite, but that's a good position to be," he said. "We'll be loose, we have no pressure on us. We'll just go out and play our game."