Eleven months ago, Syosset walked off the field at Hofstra University as the Nassau Class “A” county champions. On that day, the Braves defeated the Massapequa Chiefs in a thrilling 15-14 win that captivated the Braves’ first county championship since 2008.
For the first time since that day last May, the Braves and Chiefs met and this time it was the Chiefs that reigned supreme.
Paul Bentz scored four goals, Jim Byrns and Ian Kirby each scored three goals to help lead Massapequa to a 14-6 victory.
Syosset (4-0) and Massapequa (4-0) each came into the game with undefeated league records, likely meaning the winner of the game would win the regular season conference.
Goals by Byrns and Paul Dilena in the game’s opening minutes for Massapequa quickly helped to build the Chief’s momentum.
“We wanted to come out strong,” said Byrns to reporters. “We wanted to dictate how the game should be played.”
Syosset was able to answer in this game with goals by Alex Hatzopolous and Alex Concannon, but after a late first quarter surge by Massapequa the Braves would trail 5-3 and never be able to come back to retake the lead at any point.
The Chiefs would use a late second quarter run to lead 8-4 at the half.
Massapequa dominated the ground ball war for most of the day, and the Braves couldn’t establish themselves on the offensive end.
Coach Tim Radomski’s game plan worked to perfection as the Braves were unable to ever go on another magical run as they did last year in the county championship game to stun the Chiefs.
“Last year they beat us and a lot of the kids on the team this year were on that team,” Radomski said. “We were able to bury some shots and we played well.”
Sloppy play and turnovers was the theme in this one for the Braves who failed to muster any consistency on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball.
Massapequa coasted through the second half to secure the win over their arch rivals.
“We moved the ball real well and we found our cutters,” Radomski said. “Whenever you play against a goalie like Feit who is unbelievable and one of the best on Long Island you have to play at your best.”
Goalie, Ryan Feit, did everything in his power to keep the Braves in the game, but Massapequa’s offense was just to powerful on this day to be stopped.
“We did not win the little battles that take place on the field resulting in a loss for us today,” Feit said. “But mark my words, we will see this team again in the playoffs and it is going to be a different Syosset Braves team out there.”
Despite the loss, Syosset should remain confident in themselves. The Braves have been in this situation before, just last year when Massapequa also won the regular season matchup in Syosset before the two teams faced off for the class A championship at Hofstra.
“All week we just remembered losing in the county finals to them,” Byrns said. “We had that in the back of our minds and that led us to 14 goals. We said in the huddle to remember what it felt like to walk off that field and too try to make them feel what we felt last year.”
The Chiefs have waited almost a year for the rematch of the game against the Braves and for at least the day the feeling of redemption was in the air for the Massapequa players -- until the next time these two teams meet again at Hofstra University for another game that will decide who will win the championship.
