Long Island Lacrosse

BY MARCUS HENRY

Long Island, always considered the hotbed of lacrosse, kept its reputation intact over the weekend, going 4-0 and capturing the Under Armour underclassmen All-American championship in Maryland.

Hauppauge's Zack Losco and Will Himler of Chaminade had two goals each in Long Island's 8-5 win over Upstate New York in the championship game. Massapequa's Eric Schneider had six saves and Long Beach's Eddie Collins added three saves.

Long Island showed its dominance in the other games with a 12-4 win over Washington D.C., a 16-3 beating of New Jersey and a 9-5 win over the Midwest.

Coach Chris Rogles lauded the team's defensive effort. Starters Matt Kunkel (Ward Melville), Steven Jahelka (Garden City) and Austin Cohen of Glenn led a defense that limited its opponents to just four second half goals.

"The defense was outstanding," Rogles said.

Rogles also noted the play of Plainedge's Dylan Levings, who won 7 of 10 faceoffs in the championship game and 18 of 22 faceoffs in Long Island's win over New Jersey.

Other notables were Lynbrook's Tom DeNapoli, who had two goals and an assist in a win over Washington D.C. and St. Anthony's standout Ryan Munnelly, who had three goals in Long Island's win over New Jersey.

Hello everyone, here is a link to a slideshow of the 14 girls and two coaches that comprise Newsday's All Long Island girls lacrosse team (pictured above). The list of second-teamers can be found on the final slide.

Also, here is Mark Macyk's story on Newsday's Player of the Year, goalie Lauren Maksym of Farmingdale.

(Newsday photo by Audrey C. Tiernan / June 22, 2009)

The Farmingdale girls lacrosse team, already conference, county, Long Island and state champions, have added another accolade, they're the No. 1 girls lacrosse team in the country according to LaxPower.

LaxPower's Top 5 is:

No. 1 Farmingdale (17-0): New York State Class A Champions
No. 2 McDonogh School, Owings Mills, Maryland, (19-1): IAAM-A champion
No. 3: West Genesee, Camillus, New York (21-2): New York Upstate Regional champion
No. 4: Notre Dame Prep, Towson, Maryland (17-2): IAAM-A runner-up
No. 5: St. Stephen's & St. Agnes School, Alexandria, Virginia (25-2): ISL and VISAA I champion.

The full release and explanation of the voting is available here:

BY BOB HERZOG

Long Island’s two state championship boys lacrosse teams also finished high in the national rankings. West Islip, the Class A winner, was ranked second in both the Inside Lacrosse and LaxPower final polls. Manhasset, the Class C champ, was No. 3 in both polls. CHSAA champion St. Anthony’s wound up No. 6 in both polls. The consensus No. 1 team in the country was Gilman of Maryland.

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Five of Long Island’s finest graduating seniors made the Under Armour boys All-American team and will represent the North squad in this weekend’s North-South all-star game in Towson, Md. L.I. players on the 22-man squad are:

Ian Braddish, West Islip, M
Connor English, Manhasset, A
Jeff Froccaro, Port Washington, M
Steven Murphy, Floyd, M
Nick O’Reilly, South Side, A

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Under Armour also selected 24-player underclassmen all-star teams for an eight-team tournament this weekend in Maryland that will match regional all-star teams from around the country. Here’s the L.I. squad, selected from among 200 candidates who tried out:

CLASS OF 2010
Drew Belinsky, Manhasset, M,
Eamon Burke, Harborfields, A
Colin Clive, St. Anthony’s, A
Austin Cohen, Glenn, LSM/D
Eddie Collins, Long Bach, G
Greg D’Arienzo, Carey, M
Thomas Denapoli, Lynbrook, M
Michael Ehrhardt, Chaminade, D
Will Himler, Chaminade, A
Matt Kunkel, Ward Melville, D
James Lang, Hicksville, D
Dylan Levings, Plainedge, M
Zack Losco, Hauppauge, M
Brandon Mangan, Wantagh, A
Maxx Meyer, Half Hollow Hills East, D
Ryan Munnelly, St. Anthony’s, M
Eric Schneider, Massapequa, G
Brendan Schroeder, St. Anthony’s, M
Andrew Viscusi, Floral Park, A/M

CLASS OF 2011
Paul Desimone, Plainview JFK, A
Zak Goldbach, Plainview JFK, A
Stephen Jahelka, Garden City, D
Myles Jones, Whitman, M
Sean Mahon, Chaminade, M

BY BOB HERZOG

This is the final set of Suffolk rankings for the season.

For West Islip, it was mission accomplished. The Lions rolled past Hicksville for the L.I. title on Tuesday, handled Yorktown in the state semifinals on Thursday and defeated Orchard Park, 10-5, on Saturday for their third Class A state title in the last four years. Nicky Galasso (4 goals, 4 assists) was voted MVP of the finals. WI wound up ranked second nationally behind Gilman of Maryland, according to laxpower.com, which uses a computer-generated formula. Inside Lacrosse has not released its final national high school rankings, which are done by vote.

Please look for Newsday's All-Long Island spring sports selections in the Sunday paper of June 28.

Have a great summer and I'll be back blogging high school football some time in August, when two-a-days begin.

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Zog’s Top 10

1. West Islip (22-1). .
2. St. Anthony's (16-2)
3. Ward Melville (16-4).
4. Sayville (15-6)
5. Mt. Sinai (14-6)
6. Smithtown West (12-8)
7. Comsewogue (15-4)
8. Shoreham-Wading River (15-3)
9. Whitman (16-3)
10. Connetquot (11-7)

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Player of the week:

Scott Mattera, West Islip: The senior defenseman was voted outstanding defensive player in the state title game, leading a unit that held Orchard Park to just one second-half goal.

BY BOB HERZOG

As it has done frequently this season, West Islip made the third quarter its personal domain. The Lions outscored Orchard Park 4-0 in the third quarter and rolled to a 10-5 victory Saturday to win the Class A boys lacrosse title for the third time.

Nicky Galasso scored four goals and had four assists, including two goals and an assist in the crucial third quarter.

Brian Badolato added three goals and Andrew Hodgson had two. West Islip's defense, led by Mike McCormack and Scott Mattera, shut down Orchard Park's star Jeff Tundo in the second half, holding him to one unassisted goal. Tundo scored three in the first half, which wound up tied at 4.

West Islip finished 22-1, losing only to Ward Melville. Orchard Park was 21-2.

Good afternoon from not-so-sunny anymore Cortland. Garden City is taking the field right now, looking to make it 3-for-3 for Long Island on the day. The rain has started to fall, but the team's look ready. Back in a few with some updates.
-Mark Macyk

UPDATES:
22:33 Garden City 1, Yorktown 0: Mikaela Rix, unassted.
21:43 Garden City 1, Yorktown 1: Jamie Morrison from Amanda Trendell.
20:12 Yorktown 2, Garden City 1: Lindsay Scott, free-position.
18:19 Yorktown 3, Garden City 1: Morrison, free-position.
14:32 Yorktown 3, Garden City 2: Lauren Terraciano from Mariah Pewarski.
14:22 Yorktown 4, Garden City 2: Bridget Sickles from Morrison.
13:33 Yorktown 4, Garden City 3: Shannon Mangini from Emily Norell.
12:36 Yorktown 4, Garden City 4: Norell unassited.
11:08 Garden City 5, Yorktown 4: Caroline McTiernan, unassisted.
5:30 Garden City 6, Yorktown 4: Rix scores and slaps her teammates stick with authority. Timeout Yorkown.
3:28 Garden City 7, Yorktown 4: Katie D'Antonio scores on a free position.
0:49 Garden City 8, Yorktown 4: Mangini scores her second.

HALFTIME: Garden City 8, Yorktown 4
Mangini leads with two goals, Norell has one goal one assist, otherwise its extremely balanced. It was pouring a minute ago, now it's try and it looks like the sun is trying to peak through.

SECOND HALF
19:06 Garden City 9, Yorktown 4: Terracciano scores from D'Antonio.
17:23 Garden City 9, Yorktown 5: Scott gets Yorktown's first goal in 20 minutes of game-time.
16:36 Garden City 10, Yorktown 5: Norell scores unassisted.
15:19 Garden City 10, Yorktown 6: Morrison from Trendell.
10:26 Garden City 11, Yorktown 6: Rix, free position.
9:41 Garden City 11, Yorktown 7: Morrison, free position.
6:55 Garden City 12, Yorktown 7: McTiernan from Rix.

I'm heading down to the field to shoot some video for the N-Zone, I'll be back after the game with the final score.

FINAL SCORE: 12-7

GC ran out the clock for most of the time while I was gone and clinched its fourth straight title. Emily Norell was named MVP.

It's a perfect 3-for-3 for Long Island here in Cortland, and when you throw in the West Islip and Manhasset boys victories, LI schools took home 5-out-of-6 State titles. This is the first time since the three Division system has gone into effect that LI won all three. In 1999, when it was just Division I and II, New Hyde Park and Garden City both won.

Keep checking newsday.com, for photos, videos and game-stories about the weekend. Congratulations to all of the Long Island teams, it was an exciting weekend.

BY BOB HERZOG

Halftime: West Islip 4, Orchard Park 4.

The game remained a close, defensive struggle, with numerous ground balls and turnovers as neither team could generate much offense.

Orchard Park took a 4-2 lead on consecutive goals by Jeff Tundo, who had a first-half hat trick. But West Islip rallied late. Shane Craig scored on a 2-on-1 break off a feed by Nicky Galasso, and Andrew Hodgson cut to the net and quick-sticked another sharp feed from Galasso.

Galasso had three first-half assists.

West Islip has been a third-quarter team all season. It will have to continue that trend to earn the state title.

BY BOB HERZOG

First quarter: West Islip 2, Orchard Park 2.
West Islip outshot Orchard Park 10-3, but it didn't translate into a lead. The Lions and Quakers were tied at 2 after one. Both teams entered the game with 21-1 records.

Brian Badolato and Nicky Galasso scored goals for West Islip, which lost its lead with eight seconds left in the quarter when Matt Wilson beat defenseman Mike McCormack from behind the net to score.

West Islip is looking for its thrid state crown in its fourth visit to the finals. Orchard Park is 0-for-2 in the finals.

BY BOB HERZOG

A spectacular nine-goal performance by Connor English led Manhasset to a 16-11 victory over LaFayette Saturday in the state Class C championship game.

The Indians (20-1) needed just about every one of them. They built a 12-4 lead but saw the Lancers (23-1) stage a terrific rally, cutting the deficit to 12-10 early in the fourth quarter.

But English scored unassisted, Jeff Izzo scored on a pass from Glenn Tompkins and English scored again, this time while falling down and drawing a flag, to put Manhasset back in control. All three goals came after faceoff wins by Ricky Buhr.

Manhasset ran its fastbreak offense to perfection and put 25 of its 34 shots on goal, a remarkable 74 percent accuracy rate.

This was Manhasset's third state title in six tries and the first for third-year coach Bill Cherry.

BY BOB HERZOG

Third quarter: Manhasset 12, LaFayette 7

What a shooting perfomance by Manhasset.

At one point, with the Indians leading 12-4, they had 20 shots on goal in 26 shot attempts, a remarkable 77 percent accuracy.

The third-quarter goals were by Zac Koufakis, Jeff Molinari, Connor English -- his sixth! -- and Jeff Izzo.

Then Manhasset got a little careless with its lead and LaFayette gave its crowd -- a large contingent from the Syracuse area -- something to cheer about with three straight goals to cut it to 12-7 entering the final period.

Miles and Lyle Thompson each have a hat trick.

BY BOB HERZOG

Second quarter: Manhasset 8, LaFayette 4.

This quarter was played at a brisk pace as LaFayette displayed the offense that has produced a 23-0 record entering today's game.

But before the Lancers broke through, Manhasset's Glenn Tompkins scored two goals for a 5-0 lead.

Then the Thompsons went to work for LaFayette. Miles Thompson and Lyle Thompson each scored two goals and assisted on one the Lancers from Section 3 scored four times.

But fast-breaking Manhasset scored five goals in the quarter, with Connor English scoring the last three giving him five in the first half -- a magnificent shooting display. His unassisted goal with 27 seconds left in the half was a backbreaker.

Manhasset outshot LaFayette, 18-13.