Whether it was the shining sun, the warmer weather, senior night, a home game, the regular-season finale, battle of undefeated teams or a combination of all of it, Joey Spallina was feeling it Thursday.
And while the Mt. Sinai senior attack is also used to sensing defenses swarming to him, instead of trying to force a goal, he let his opponents slide to him, and passes to one of his teammates for a score. The Mt. Sinai senior attack did that six times, and scored three goals to drive his Mustangs to a 12-7 win over rival Shoreham-Wading River May 12.
“That’s how we score easy goals, and obviously scoring easy goals is great,” Spallina said, smiling. “Teams slide really early, so I try to just dodge and create space for myself and my teammates — I’m always looking for them.”
Though Mt. Sinai (16-0, 14-0) did not find space for the first three minutes, senior midfielder James Carretta eventually created a hole up front, and Spallina saw it, passing to his longtime friend for the game’s first goal.
“Playing with Joey opens up opportunities for everyone on the field,” Carretta said. “It’s a luxury that not many others get. He is truly a great teammate.”
“And seeing each other thrive gets us all pumped up,” the senior continued. “Everyone was doing their part and we were having fun. The atmosphere was great.”
Spallina was also thrilled to be able to play with his two younger brothers in his final season in the red, black and white. He assisted junior midfielder Jake Spallina’s two goals that sandwiched another brother pairing for a score — Liam to Alec Gregorek on the other end — to put Mt. Sinai out front 3-1 with 8:06 to go in the first quarter.
“They’re the best goals ever,” Spallina said of his tag-teams with Jake. “When they say ‘Goal by Jake Spallina…’ it’s just awesome to be able to do that.”
And it seemed like once the Mustangs warmed up their engines, they were off to the races. Cole Marsala was next to receive a pass from Spallina from behind the cage, and the junior attack rocketed a shot into the netting unassisted two minutes later for a 5-2 advantage. He finished the evening with four goals.
“Some days they just come easy like that,” Marsala said. “Everyone slides to Joey, so the rest of us just try to cut and get open. And the defense was turned around a lot, so when they’re not paying attention you have to constantly keep moving.”
Spallina scored next off a faceoff win and feed from senior Austin Oppenheim for a four-goal lead heading into halftime.
“We watched film — we watched pretty much every game — because we know we’re going to see them again,” Spallina said, eluding to a Suffolk County Class C championship matchup. “We kept note of everything that they do and try to work on the things we could do to get better. It’s obviously a great team to do it against.”
But the Wildcats (15-1, 13-1) weren’t ready to throw in the towel. Sophomore attack Liam Kershis (two goals, two assists) opened the scoring for the third and after Spallina found sophomore attack Lucas Laforge in front from behind the cage, the Gregorek brothers were at it again. Junior attack Alec Gregorek found his younger brother this time before following up his feed with an unassisted score to make it a two-goal game.
Marsala had other plans, though, cutting to the cage and securing his third goal after accepting a pass from Spallina, who followed with his hat trick score to spring the Mustangs out front 11-6 at the 6:43 mark on the fourth.
“I’ve known Joey forever — played with him for a while — and this year it just really came together,” Marsala said. “To come out of the season undefeated and beat the team that we’ve been wanting to play for a while feels great. We played as a team, and this really gets us going heading into playoffs.”
Carretta said his team still knows though that there’s a lot of lacrosse left to be played.
“This is a game we have been looking forward to all season, but the second season starts now, and we have a long road ahead of us,” the senior said. “The job’s not finished yet.”
No. 1-seeded Mt. Sinai earns a first-round bye in the Suffolk County playoffs. The Mustangs will host their final home game against the winner of No. 4 Islip v No. 5 Miller Place on May 24. Spallina was beaming thinking about his team’s chances of chasing a state title.
“I feel like we’re in a good spot right now,” he said. “We just need to keep dotting our i’s and crossing our t’s, and I think in the next couple of weeks we’ll be in an even better spot.”
