The Ward Melville Patriots (8-2) beat William Floyd High School Boys Lacrosse (5-5) at home on Tuesday afternoon in a landslide win of 21-8. After a contentious first half, Ward Melville’s offense went on a run, while Floyd was only able to return two points in the entire second half.
Tuesday’s game was off to a slow start when William Floyd opened quickly with the first goal. Yet, the Patriots closed the first quarter with a 3-1 lead.
The entire first half was a tough fight for both teams with a lot of back and forth. William Floyd brought the competition in the second quarter when Julian Duque and Jezayd Hall scored consecutive goals for William Floyd, followed by back-to-back goals from senior attacker Jake Taylor to secure William Floyd’s only lead of the game of 5-4 with 7:20 remaining in the second quarter. Taylor scored the subsequent goal on Ward Melville’s second-string goalie, while their starting goalie was in the penalty box.
“You’ve got to tip your hat off to Floyd, they’re well-coached, they’ve got a really good goalie and number five [Jezayd Hall] is outstanding at the Face-Off X,” Patriots Head Coach Jay Negus said at the end of the game. “They’ve got some really offensive kids— they’re a dangerous team.”
Following the Colonials’ short-held lead, Ward Melville junior Kevin Dolan helped the Patriots take back their lead, and seniors James Araneo and Trevor Dunn scored in succession to bring their lead to 9-6 just before halftime. “I think we came together as a team and did what we needed to do,” Dunn said.
Kevin Dolan is used to his role as a leading attackman but put on a different hat for today’s game. “Our offense has been really dialed in together,” the Fairfield commit said. “This was my first time playing middie and Trevor took a huge lead and brought me in easily today.”
The Patriots returned from halftime and brought the heat. Following a too-close-for-comfort first half, Ward Melville’s offense took on a scoring run in the third quarter, leaving Floyd with seven unanswered points up until the last three minutes of the third. Ward Melville led 16-6 for most of the quarter, with goals by Giovanni Serratore, Mark Roarty, sophomores Nikolas Barbero and Aidan Valeiko and two for Dolan.
William Floyd’s senior attacker Julian Duque scored their only two points of the entire second half, with a goal in each of the last two quarters. But Ward Melville separated the score by too big of a point deficit for the Colonials’ offense to return from. Ward Melville led 18-7 going into the last quarter and finished the game with a final score of 21-8.
“They kept it close in the beginning, but I’m more excited about how we responded in the second half. We haven’t really put four quarters together and today we responded with two, and it’s a step in the right direction, we’ve got a long way to go,” Coach Negus said.
The Patriots now prepare to play Bay Shore (8-1) on Thursday, ranked No. 2 in Conference A. However, both teams are coming off of wins, following Bay Shore’s 21-6 win over Middle Country on Tuesday.
