Albert Paniccia couldn’t believe his eyes. With 3:49 left in sudden victory double overtime, the senior midfielder saw an opening, and took it. He bounced a shot to the left side of the cage while rolling to hand Friends Academy its first Long Island championship in program history with a 15-14 win over Port Jefferson at East Islip Middle School Saturday.
“I’m speechless,” the Binghamton University-commit said, like how he felt when he got up from his shot, seeing that the ball had went in and his team won the Class D title. He grabbed his head in disbelief as he rushed toward the rest of his team waiting for him at midfield. “I hit the brakes, took it off the gas, slowed the game down and saw an opening that was just there. Then it was all a blur.”
The Quakers found themselves down 14-10 after a Kyle Yannucci goal for Port Jefferson with 7:24 left to play. But much like the Royals after they found themselves down 9-4 with 5:23 left in the first half, Friends Academy (11-1) knew it had more to give.
Senior faceoff specialist Max Kahane (two goals) said he told his team late it takes blood, sweat and tears to pull out a victory. That message seemed to stick. Senior attack Ben Lee (four goals) hit his mark for the first and second-to-last goals in regulation for Friends Academy. The scores were part of a five-goal tare to close out the game.
“I have probably never been this happy before,” Lee said. “This is everything we dreamed about.”
Senior midfielder Michael Walrath (a hat trick and one assist) blasted a shot to the right side of the cage to close the gap to 14-12 with 4:17 to go, and senior attack Thomas Robin tied the game at 14-all with 46.5 seconds left in regulation. Junior goalkeeper Peter Murphy made 16 stops for the Royals to Friends Academy’s Thanasi Pappas‘ seven — including four late in the fourth quarter.
“You put the work in and that’s what happens — it pays off,” Kahane said. “We set a goal from Day 1 to win the LIC, and we feel pretty good right now.”
Kahane, personally, has a lot to feel good about, too. He won nearly every faecoff for Friends Academy. The possessions proved crucial down the stretch.
“He’s been doing well all year — wasn’t fazed, wasn’t nervous,” Pannicia said. “He did his job and we got the win.”
“I was winning the faceoffs, but it was a team effort,” Kahane said. “[Cade Delgado] was a really good competitor — one of the best I played this season — but I kept telling myself, ‘I’ve gotta win, I’ve gotta win.’ This is the best moment of my life.”
After going down 9-4 on Walrath’s second goal of the game with 5:23 left in the second quarter — one of nine goals scored in the 12-minute span — Port Jefferson (9-7) saw contributions from junior Kyle Scandale (four goals), senior Daniel Koban (three goals, one assist) and sophomore Brady DeWitt (three goals, two assists) to close the gap, 9-7, at the end of the third. Scandale made it a one-goal game at the 8:41 mark of the third, and DeWitt tied it at 9-all, before Lee’s go-ahead goal. Koban tied the game at 10 before his team went on a scoring blitz to make it 14-10.
“It was frustrating,” Paniccia said of going down late, “but we knew we had to bear down.”
The senior said his Quakers thought back to their only loss of the season — an 8-14 road deafest at the hands of Plainedge back on May 17. Paniccia said he and his team knew they did not want to experience that feeling again. The win’s been part of a big turnaround season from Friends Academy’s 2019 showing, where the team finished 4-12 overall and 0-9 in conference play.
“We said we worked too hard,” Paniccia said. “It feels amazing to bring the first LIC to Friends Academy lacrosse. This is one of the best feelings in the world.”
