Defense was the most crucial component of Saturday afternoon’s Class B Long Island Championship between Garden City (12-3) and Comsewogue (15-1) boys lacrosse teams at East Islip Middle School.
In sports, defense is defined as “the action of preventing an opponent from scoring” — and Garden City’s defenders did just that. The Trojans were able to hold Comsewogue’s Jake Deacy, one of Long Island’s leading scorers, to only one goal in a near shut-out game.
Garden City emerged victorious once again, and brought home another LIC to Nassau. The Trojans won 5-1 in a scrappy, contentious matchup with the help of their goalie, Drew Quinn, who only let up one goal the entire game. This was both teams’ lowest scoring game of all season.
This win was hard fought on both ends, but Garden City seems to have some unfair advantage.
Jack Cascadden that is. Cascadden was a key factor in his team’s win. This junior middie is a real craftsman at the face-off X, winning every single face-off of the game allowing his team to maintain possession for a majority of all four quarters. Everytime Cascadden touched down at the X, he “went in with the mindset of playing our game,” he said. “Winning a face-off doesn’t have to be perfect. Getting possession is all that matters.”
With such a defense-oriented game, it was difficult for either team to make a play without taking the slimmest shots on goal. However, Garden City’s senior attacker Ryan Connelly was able to score the first goal of the game over five minutes into the first quarter. And then did it once again, scoring within the first two minutes of the following quarter. Connelly scored the only two goals of the first half, making two of his four shots on goal.
By halftime, Deacy had only taken two shots on goal and Garden City was still up 2-0. Yet, some spectators believe the refs were to blame for Comsewogue’s inability to gain some momentum.
The third quarter passed by, and still no goals from the Warriors. Instead, Trojans’ sophomore and coach’s son, Stevie Finnell, scored his first goal of the game while his team kept their defense on lock down on the other half of the field. Garden City was so secure in their lead that the Trojans held possession for about six minutes straight at one point.
The rivalry intensified on and off the field as spectators called out poorly called penalties or unfair advantages in favor of Garden City, which reflected in how the boys played. Emotions were high and translated into their physical game. Consequently, the more scrappy the game became towards the end, the more their focus began to fall apart.
“The game was very intense,” Cascadden said. “Their defensemen check very hard and leave their mark.”
Finally, nearly three minutes into the final quarter, the referees had finally made their first call in favor of Comsewogue, giving just enough opportunity for Deacy to score his team’s only goal of the game.
However, it wasn’t long until Finnell returned with his second goal. And to finish the game, Cascadden took the opportunity to score on a run to close the game at 5-1.
To put it simply, Cascadden described his feelings post-game: “Grateful for this team and all we have accomplished, despite the negative energy that was thrown toward us.”
