by Michelle Rabinovich
Following a 15-5 win over Lynbrook in the semifinal round, the Manhasset Indians took home the Nassau County Class C title 15-9 on Wednesday, May 31 over the Wantaugh Warriors.
“Grateful that it’s over and that it’s a win,” said head coach Keith Cromwell. “Credit to our boys, it wasn’t easy tonight by any means, Wantaugh’s a tough bunch of kids, extremely well-coached and they gave us everything we could handle but I think [Manhasset] stuck with the plan and grinded it out and we were able to get a little breathing room at the end.”
That breathing room was seven goals in the last quarter after having scored two goals in each of the first two periods, followed by four more in the third period.
“We’re a funny team, we get going in spurts at certain times,” Cromwell said. “That spurt there, we kind of finally got our legs going and our confidence back and we’re a team of runs so I’m glad we ended on one.”
The squads trading two goals early but were locked in a stalemate until Wantaugh’s Joseph Martin rolled the ball just barely past the goal line, marking the first time that Manhasset trailed in the afternoon.
The 3-2 score went into the second frame until Indians’ Aidan Haggerty put up the equalizer 53 seconds in. Back-to-back saves from both goalies before Kyle Conklin gave up the lead to Manhasset freshman Kip Zacharia with just under six minutes to go until the halftime break.
“I thought they were doing a great job mixing up some looks,” Cromwell commented on Wantaugh’s defense in the first half of the game. “They were throwing some man, they were throwing some zone, they were keeping us on our toes.”
After the break, both offensive halves woke up, going over double the score 8-7 in the next 12 minutes.
Manhasset picked up the pace and added to their lead to 9-7 in the first two minutes of the fourth frame, quickly overshadowed by Matt Cargiulo’s man-up goal for the first three-point lead of the evening.
The Liam Connor and Cargiulo duo made it a 12-7 game before half of the period passed, and while the Warriors made a goal off a goalie rebound, Jack Peterson compensated with a pair of goals within 30 seconds of each other. After that, it looked like Wantaugh put up a white flag, for a final score of 15-9.
“Jack’s been phenomenal, Harvard’s lucky to have him,” Cromwell explained. “He’s been a leader for us for the last two years… and he works for what he gets.”
“It’s just nice to be able to help my team out in any way I can,” Peterson said. “I think it was just ball movement, kind of like playing freer.”
The senior Harvard commit, along with the rest of his team, have their eyes on the prize for Saturday’s game against the Suffolk County Class C champion.
“Just keep rolling, make sure we’re doing what we’re doing and not to get rattled when things don’t go our way,” Peterson explained.
“A lot of homework to do in the next two nights, we got to get to know Shoreham as fast as possible,” Cromwell said about the Long Island matchup. “We got to come out and play Manhasset lacrosse. As much as we got to worry about who they are and what they’re about we got to make sure that we’re playing our game, and if we are I’ll trust my guys any day of the week.”
The Nassau and Suffolk Class C county champions will battle for the Long Island title on Saturday, June 3, at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium.
