Hendrickson's 4 goals key in Farmingdale's win

Was that really 12 goals on the scoreboard for Farmingdale early in the fourth quarter? Excuse defenseman Keith Hadnagy if that total was surprising. He knew the Dalers lacrosse team had not been prolific.

"We've been a team that wins, 6-5," Hadnagy said of Farmingdale's usual low-scoring battles in Nassau Conference I. "It's nice when we can look up and see 12 goals."

In a 12-7 defeat of visiting Massapequa Sunday, attackman Korey Hendrickson scored four goals and attackman Brian Prendergast had three as Farmingdale improved to 7-2 overall, 5-0 in the league and are the only undefeated team in Conference I. Massapequa fell to 7-3, 4-1.

Farmingdale led 12-2 with 9:53 left on Hendrickson's fourth goal before Massapequa scored five straight in the last eight minutes.

"We played really well for about 41 minutes and we kind of let off the throttle a little bit," Farmingdale coach Bob Hartranft said.

The Dalers were running wide open at the start. The goals came quickly and from a different stick on each of Farmingdale's first four scoring plays.

Forty-four seconds in, Patrick Starke bounced an on-the-run shot past Massapequa goalie Eric Schneider. Just over a minute later, Prendergast fired a 5-yard strike from the left wing. And the Dalers' defensemen got involved in the scoring, too.

Longpole defenseman Joe Ostrander scored in transition to put Farmingdale ahead 3-0 3:33 into the first quarter, and Hadnagy then helped create offense.

Surrounded by defenders in the Massapequa zone, Hadnagy carefully lobbed a pass over one of them toward the center of the field. Hendrickson scooped it on the first bounce and shot straightaway from 11 yards to score. "We planned that in practice one day," said Hendrickson, a junior.

Farmingdale led 4-1 at the end of the first quarter and Prendergast scored the first two goals during the 4-1 second quarter. The Dalers scored the eight first-half goals on 14 shots. Farmingdale goaltender Hayden Kirk made seven saves in all.

It was 10-2 at the end of three quarters and not the normal, defensive struggle Farmingdale is used to in a game against a league contender.

"Every game is usually a dogfight," Hartranft said. "This was very unusual for us to be up 12-2 on a team that was undefeated in the league."

In other key league games this season, Farmingdale beat defending county champion Hicksville, 6-5, on Wednesday. The Dalers beat Syosset, 8-2, on April 15 and Port Washington, 9-5, on April 10. They host Baldwin (9-1, 5-1) on Tuesday.

"A lot of things are clicking right now," said Hadnagy, a senior co-captain. "We just have to keep it going to the end."