Despite it being a tie game late, Joey Spallina waited patiently behind the back of the cage, looking for an opportunity to put his Mt. Sinai boys lacrosse team ahead. With 5:29 left to play, he found it in a pass to Mustangs senior midfielder Nick Colantonio, who, from nearly 20 yards out from the left side of the cage, rocketed his shot into the right corner of the goal for a 7-6 Mustangs advantage, their third lead of the game. Mt. Sinai (8-0) topped Westhampton Beach 8-6 Saturday, in the team’s closest game of the season, to remain undefeated.
“[Joey Spallina] is a phenomenal feeder, and we knew we had a game on our hands and to keep our goal alive of having an undefeated season we had to step up the final minutes of the game and get the job done,” Colantonio said. “I realized that although we hadn’t finished a lot of our shots, our offense was still getting great looks, and most of those looks came from cuts, so when Joe had the ball at ‘X,’ I cut in from up top and kind of slowed down to find a little open hole in the defense, and Joey read it perfectly. He found me open on the crease for me to finish.”
Spallina was actually returning the favor. Just four minutes earlier, he was the one being fed a pass from Colantonio to tie the game after the Hurricanes (4-4) took their second lead of the game, both coming in the second half.
“They played a zone, so I knew going in we were going to have to move the ball fast and play off ball, which we did a great job of and scored some nice goals off of that,” the junior attack said. “Toward the end we began moving the ball a lot quicker, which allowed us to get better opportunities to score.”
Spallina, who finished the game with two goals and six assists, leads all of Long Island with 58 points off 20 goals and 38 assists.
“It’s an honor to be in the position I’m in, but I’ve gotta give credit to my teammates, because without them, none of it would be possible,” the junior said. “We are so strong because we play as a team and stick to the script and the way that we play.”
The Mustangs were first on the board, and led 3-1 at the 2:23 mark of the first off an unassisted Spallina score. He grabbed a rebound off a missed pass following Westhampton Beach junior goalkeeper Conor Farnan’s save and found the lower left corner.
“They fought hard and they’re a great team — well-coached and they played hard,” Spallina said. “We just kept playing hard and playing our game and eventually things started to click for us.”
But Farnan, who made a personal and game-high 17 saves, stopped back-to-back shots in the last minute of the quarter to keep his team within striking distance. He, too, was quick to credit his teammates.
“I felt good, but I wouldn’t have been able to do it without my defense — they weren’t giving up good shots,” the junior said. “We knew Joey Spallina was going to be at ‘X’ — his IQ is just out of this world — and we knew we had to watch those cutters, but I think everybody had a great game. We couldn’t have done much more.”
Westhampton Beach senior midfielder Rob Moore, who scored at the 1:29 mark of the first to make it a one-goal game, started the second with a huge turnover that led to senior attack Jack Moloney’s first goal of the game off an assist from sophomore attack Gavin Arcuri. The knotted score would stand at halftime.
Moore gave the Hurricanes the lead both times in the second half, with 36 seconds left in the third and 9:55 left in the fourth. He finished the game with a hat trick.
“Our midfield is so strong,” Farnan said. “Coming in we knew this was going to be a tough one – Mt. Sinai is a great team with some great players — and I think we more than held our own and showed we can play with anyone.”
Although coming away with the victory senior goalkeeper Matt Graffeo (six saves) said the game was a wakeup call.
“We didn’t come out as hot as we wanted to, and we definitely missed a few slides and some guys got inside, which shouldn’t have happened,” Graffeo said. “But this makes us realize that we have to try harder for every game, give it 100 percent. There’s always a lot of talent on this team — a lot of potential — we just have to come together as a team and no one can stop us.”
