It was a cloudy Saturday for Lynbrook’s annual Lacrosse Day on April 22. Every Lynbrook lacrosse team played at Greis Veterans Memorial Park throughout the day. From 11 AM to 9 PM, Greis was full of action-packed lacrosse, for what turned out to be an entertaining and fun day.

The first two games of the day were played by the JV teams; they were both high scoring but ended with different outcomes. The boys’ JV team took the field for the first game of the four played on Saturday, and they did not disappoint, scoring 13 goals on the Bethpage Golden Eagles to give Lynbrook its first win of the day. 

Sophomores Nate Greenfeld and Edward Stradowski led the way, netting three goals each, along with three assists. Freshman Liam Gallagher added his own two goals on the box score, and sophomore Luca Palleschi stopped 8 of 12 shots from the Golden Eagles en route to the win.

The girls’ JV team took the field next for a 2:00 PM game, and it ended differently than the other games that day. This was the one game that Lynbrook lost during Lacrosse Day, losing by a score of 13-3. 

The team was shorthanded; however, first-year Cameron Kirby was in net against the Oceanside Sailors due to eighth grader Delia Kirkpatrick not being present. The three goals for Lynbrook were scored by sophomores Luci Miata and Peyton Leighly, along with eighth grader Kelsey Ambrosio who put one of her own in the back of the net.

The first varsity team of the day would be the girls’ team at 4:30 PM. Prior to the game, the team chose Eric Guzzo, a young boy who is fighting a battle with brain cancer, to be their honorary captain for the day. Senior Tyla Vuotto walked Guzzo down a tunnel of lacrosse sticks, formed by the girls’ sticks, before hugging his mom at the end. 

The girls started off fast, as a penalty shot from senior Sara Curley put the Owls up 1-0 with less than two minutes passed in the first half. Lynbrook would be up 3-0 in the first five minutes (thanks to goals from seniors Kaelynn O’Brien and Ava Padilla), and the scoring would not stop there. 

However, Lynbrook would lose a key player, sophomore Brooke Mazzei, as a head collision would take her out for the game. Twenty-six of Mazzei’s 33 points were put in the back of the net, so losing the midfielder for the whole game due to injury looked fatal.

The rest of the first half went by just how the Owls would have liked it. Allowing one Cougars goal 15 minutes into the half would give Lynbrook the opportunity to keep increasing their lead, and that is exactly what they did.

Curley would score two more goals before the half, giving her a hat trick before the second half was even played. Seniors Mimi Berkowitz and Caityblu Cavassa added two goals of their own, as sophomore Olivia Palleschi would give the Owls the 10th goal of the half heading into the break, 10-1 Owls.

Nothing changed in the second half. O’Brien added two more goals to her total, going on the end the game tied for the most points (T-6 with Sara Curley), and the early lead let the Owls go into cruise control from then on out, beating the Cougars by a score of 15-4. The girls increased their win streak to five games, while improving to a 7-2 overall record. 

Coach Vincent Tetro was proud with how everyone played as a team throughout the win. “We have been good with getting assists and just helping each other out. Today, the attack was not letting the opposing defenders get the ball up the field, and we just played as a team on both sides of the ball.”

The final game of the day belonged to the boys’ varsity team, who were looking to bounce back from a 12-4 loss to Plainedge a few days prior. Under the lights, the Owls faced off against the Mepham Pirates, and the matchup was a very entertaining way to end an entertaining Saturday.

Mepham would kick off the scoring less than a minute into the conclusion of Lacrosse Day. It would not take long for the Owls to respond though, as senior Max Dantona scored two goals in a 4-goal run to end the quarter.

The Pirates struggled to find a way to stop a dominant Lynbrook offense, as both Dantona and junior Anthony Capitali would finish the half with their own respective hat tricks. The first half belonged to the Owls, but Mepham would not go down quietly.

Sophomore Luka Dantona would get the scoring started early in the third quarter, but the Pirates would respond to the nine unanswered goals with four of their own goals to shrink the lead down to five.

Looking to stop the bleeding, the Owls called a timeout to try and put an end to Mepham’s 4-1 run to start the quarter. “[In the timeout], we talked about possessing the ball, making good smart plays, and not letting them get the momentum to get back in the game,” Coach William Luzzi said.

Following the timeout, the Owls did exactly that, scoring four goals (three of which were off assists) to bring the lead back up to nine, ending the third quarter with a score of 14-5. 

Now the Owls could take a step back, as the game was out of reach from Mepham. The Pirates would score three more goals before the final buzzer, but Lynbrook walked away with an easy win to cap off this year’s Lacrosse Day.

Three Owls (Dantona, Capitali, and sophomore Bennet Votano) ended the day with a hat trick in the win over Mepham. Capitali led the way with a season-high 5 points throughout his impressive showing, as the Owls moved to 5-4 on the season.

When asked about what it means to get a win on Lacrosse Day, Coach Tetro ecstatically replied, “It’s always great! You always want to get a win on Lacrosse Day, and if you get everybody in the game, everybody has fun–everyone gets a little piece of the action on the field–and it works out great.”

“It’s awesome. Lynbrook Lacrosse Day is all about the community and how special it is to us,” Coach Luzzi explained. “We’re thrilled that we could represent our community and have all our fans come out, and all of the youth programs come out and be a part of this. We’re trying to build a special community, which is already here, but we’re trying to grow that even more,” Luzzi added.