Danny Garone, AJ Alexander, Luca Accardo spur Syosset over Farmingdale

Coming into Tuesday’s Nassau Class A boys lacrosse championship game between Syosset and Farmingdale, it was evident it was going to be a matchup of contrasting styles.

The high-octane Syosset offense up against a stout Farmingdale team that had been able to grind out a one-goal win when the two sides met two weeks ago.

Midway through the second quarter, the Dalers had once again dictated the style of play.

Enter Danny Garone and AJ Alexander — with a big assist from Luca Accardo.

Garone had five goals and an assist and Alexander added three goals — all in the second half — to help lead top-seeded Syosset over No. 2 Farmingdale, 13-7, at Mitchel Field.

"We’re just a run-and-gun team," Garone said. "We have ridiculous chemistry because I’ve been playing with these guys since I was 5 years old. We all know what each other does and once we get a couple of goals, we just roll."

Tom Decker scored to put Farmingdale ahead 3-2 with 10:31 remaining in the second quarter but that would be the last Dalers goal until the final minute of the third.

SEE PHOTOSNassau 'A' boys lacrosse final: Syosset vs. Farmingdale photos

In that time frame, Syosset struck eight times, thanks to a huge effort on faceoffs from Accardo, who won 21 of 23.

"The run was amazing," Accardo said. "We got all the faceoffs that we needed and every opportunity we had on offense, we buried. We worked on that after that first game and we made sure we came out tonight to make a statement that we’re the best team in Nassau County."

Alexander said: "Shoutout to [Accardo]. He really helped us keep the ball and that’s exactly what we needed. It was huge."

Farmingdale scored twice in an 18-second span in the final minute of the third quarter to pull within 10-5 but Alexander answered with eight seconds remaining in the frame before Garone scored his final goal in the opening minute of the fourth.

"We weren’t complacent after the first game against them," Garone said. "We know they’re a really good team. They’re Farmingdale, a big Class A team. We worked our butts off all week and knew we had to play hard and that’s what we did."

Defender Devin Lefkowitz scored two goals to double his season total, Joseph Bueti added two goals and an assist and Joey Greco made 13 saves for Syosset.

"We were able to dictate our style of play this time," Syosset coach John Calabria said. "Once you get in the situation where you’re down a few. it’s sometimes tough to get back into the game. We knew what they were going to do and we were able to step up and play our style. Ultimately we were able to pull it out."

By Gene Morris

gene.morris@newsday.comGeneMorris

Gene Morris joined Newsday's sports department in September 2012 and covers high school sports. He earned a journalism degree from Stony Brook University in 2010.