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Shoreham battles against West
BOYS' LAX
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As the top teams in Division II continue to batter each other senseless, the Shoreham-Wading River Wildcats boys' lacrosse team won an important home game against Smithtown West on May 12. It was senior day for the program, and several seniors played large roles in the Wildcat 10-6 win.
Start with Nick Longo in the cage making 10 tough saves against a talented, youthful Bulls attack. In front of Longo was the large and mobile senior defenseman Sean Mahoney, who refused to take credit for holding down the Bulls.
"We all been playing together a long time," said Mahoney, "me, my brother Chris, Leo Greeley, and our long-stick midfielders. Plus, Nik Mullen and Kyle Sopko and Jack Miller always drop back and play good defense. Also, our coaching staff makes our job easy. We always know enough about every player."
Smithtown West's Lou Riley won the opening faceoff and the Bulls probed the Wildcat defense carefully for several minutes without scoring a goal. The first time the Wildcats touched the ball they scored within a minute on a pass from sophomore Connor Drost to eighth-grader Timmy Rotanz. Bulls' freshman attackman James Pannell answered with a speed dodge from behind the cage. With three minutes left in the first, Wildcat senior attackman Joey Lustgarten won a loose ground ball on the crease and scored to give Shoreham another lead. Then Lustgarten fed sophomore Pat Menezes for a sidearm rocket. Senior Wildcats' middie Mike Perdie scored unassisted. When Mahoney buried his fast break goal, the Bulls called time to shake things up, and insert junior Sean Dougherty in the cage.
With 9:13 left in the second quarter Pannell scored again, finishing a pass from junior captain Brett Madarasz. Smithtown West sophomore Kyle Keenan beat his man from behind the cage and the teams went to halftime with the Wildcats on top 5-3.
"I felt in the beginning like I could take my guy, but they started to play my topside more," Pannell said. "Also, their goalie really is very good and he made it hard to put the ball in the net."
Still, Pannell fed Keenan for a goal to pull the Bulls within one early in the third quarter, but the rest of the second half was almost a replay of the first, with the Wildcats racking up five goals and the Bulls two more for the 10-6 final.
"They are great in transition and their goalie was great, especially in the third quarter," Smithtown West head coach Sean Keenan said.
Wildcat head coach Tom Rotanz said, "Sean Keenan does a great job there, and they are very talented. I'm one guy who is happy they're back in Class A next year."
On May 14 West fell to former Smithtown coach Kevin Huff's Eastport squad 11-9. Shoreham topped Bellport 17-5.
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