Wantagh Boys Lacrosse Falls at Garden City

Wantagh entered its long-awaited lacrosse match up with Garden City riding a four-game winning streak in which it outscored opponents 67-15. With victories over Farmingdale and defending Colorado state champion Cherry Creek under their belts, the Warriors figured to be a team that could give the Trojans fits. 

But, Wantagh ran into a team on a mission when it traveled to Garden City for the huge Conference B-I match up. The Trojans got two goals and two assists from junior Devin Dwyer, and a solid defensive effort to knock off the Warriors 11-3. Garden City’s Tom Gordon added three goals and an assist. 

Garden City, which improved to 3-0 in league play, 7-2 overall, has won three consecutive games and four of its past five. The Trojans were coming off a 10-0 rout of Duxbury High School at Harvard University. Duxbury has won seven Division I Massachusetts state titles.

Wantagh beat Garden City 10-9 when the teams met during the regular season in 2010. The Trojans exacted a little revenge when it returned the favor in the county title game. 

The Trojans got off to a fantastic start and never looked back. Rob Savage, J.P. Burnside, Devin Dwyer, and Patric Berkery all found the back of the net in the opening quarter to give Garden City a 4-0 lead after one quarter. The Warriors, who came into the game a little banged up, never challenged.

Coming into the contest, Garden City head coach Steve Finnell called the meeting with Wantagh the biggest league game of the season. The winner had the inside track to the league title. He was happy with the outcome. “Wantagh is one of the best offensive teams around,” Finnell said. “We knew coming in that we’d have to play very strong six-on-six defense. We didn’t give them many opportunities. We played very well.” 

The game became a rout in the second quarter as Liam Kennedy, Dwyer, and Gordon scored to make the score 7-0. Adding insult to injury, the Trojans increased their lead to 8-0 despite being down a man. Berkery took it around the cage, warded off a defender, and beat goalie Jake Gambitsky for his 12th goal of the season. 

Gordon opened up the scoring in the second half. The Johns Hopkins-bound senior now has 20 goals on the year. With his two goals and two helpers, Dwyer has 10 goals and 27 assists. Wantagh, which fell to 3-1 in league play, 6-3 overall, got second half goals from Cory Stavis, Matt Balzano, and Brian Von Bargen. 

Wantagh head coach Gary Reh gave Garden City their props. “Their defense is among the best in the state, and they showed it today,” Reh said. “We had some tough match ups, but we thought we would give them a better game. They beat us pretty good.” 

Garden City got another solid effort from goalie Dan Marino. The junior netminder had seven saves, and has yielded just five goals in the past 11 quarters. He had 13 saves in the shutout victory over Duxbury. Stephen Jahelka, Mark Ellis, and Matt Confort all had stellar performances for the Trojans. John Reicherter played well in a losing effort for Wantagh. 

Reh hopes his team will put this one behind them. “The guys are very upset with the way we played,” Reh said. “We need to get healthy, tighten up our defense, and got the offense clicking again. We were all over the place on offense. We have to play better if we want to compete with teams like Garden City.” 

Wantagh is next in action this Wednesday at Division for a 4:30 p.m. faceoff.