Stevie Finnell couldn’t believe his eyes.
The Garden City junior found the ball in his stick a minute-and-a-half into sudden-death overtime Saturday, turned toward the goal and blasted a shot into the netting to hand his Trojans their first Woodstick Classic win over Manhasset since 2016, 12-11.
“I just ran,” the midfielder said after watching the ball rattle the cage, his teammates racing around him in celebration. “I was in the crease, so I was just trying to follow the ball and get space in the middle. One of my teammates found me, and I just turned and shot.”
He said the victory April 30 was a big one for Garden City (8-2 overall, 4-0 in Conference B) after being handed its first and only loses of the season in back-to-back games to Cold Spring Harbor (9-7 on April 14) and Mt. Sinai (8-5 in the GEICO Showcase April 22).
“Those two loses were pretty tough — they’re two really good teams — but it feels good to bounce back against another really good team,” Finnell said. “We played hard. The offense moved well together.”
Manhasset (8-2 overall, 6-0 in C/D) got on the board first, but Garden City sandwiched a Dawson Rielly goal (four scores) for a 4-2 lead after the first quarter of the 138th edition of the rivalry game.
Finnell opened the second with a rocket to the upper right corner for a 5-2 advantage with 11:11 to go in the first half, but Manhasset senior midfielder Hunter Panzik (four goals) responded like he did all quarter. After a Luke Schmitt goal, Panzik scored twice over 30-second span — recording a hat trick in less than five minutes — to pull the Indians within one, 6-5, with 5:28 left in the quarter.
Trojans midfielder Jay Ottomanelli had something to say about that, though. The senior scored soon after — Manhasset answered for a 7-6 score heading into halftime — and recorded two straight goals after two Chris Allen saves for his own hat trick. And his shot at the 6:11 mark dazzled. He received a feed from junior midfielder Jack Archer after a fake, and bulled up the center before hitting his mark on a behind-the-back shot as he trailed left. His second goal came just 40 seconds later for a 9-6 Garden City lead.
“I was feeling a rush of emotions,” said the senior, before quickly saying that despite the showing, his Trojans need to remain level-headed. “We have to stay poised — there’s a lot more game to play.”
There were plenty of minutes left Saturday, too, with Rielly and Panzik finding the cage to reclose the gap to one, and senior Matt Perfetto knotting it at 9-all on a snipe with 3:08 left in the third. Schmitt re-stretched Garden City’s lead to two, 11-9, to open the fourth, but back-to-back Rielly goals, the second with 1:12 left in regulation, sent the teams into overtime.
Ottomanelli said when he saw his teammate’s shot go in almost halfway into the golden-goal period, it felt like a wave crashed over him.
“I froze,” he said. “It felt surreal. We waited a long time for this.”
Ottomanelli said his team was confident coming into the game, knowing all the time and effort that went in during practice, and said the assurance only skyrockets from here.
“If we keep giving 110 percent 100 percent of the time — mentally and physically — like we did all week in practice and all throughout this game,” he said, “nothing’s stopping us.”
