After slow start, Garden City boys lacrosse finds groove and tops MacArthur
Garden City's Luke Schmitt celebrates with teammates after a goal in a Nassau boys lacrosse game between Garden City and MacArthur on Friday, May 6, 2022. Credit: Howard Simmons
After a slow start Friday afternoon the Garden City boys lacrosse team knew it had to get back to basics.
James Hegel found the back of the net for MacArthur with just more than four minutes remaining in the first quarter to give the Generals an early two-goal lead.
“We just didn’t come out ready to play,” Garden City defender Brendan Staub said. “You’re going to have those games and those types of first quarters. I think we needed to be woken up.”
The wakeup call came in the form of Jack Cascadden, whose first-quarter goal capped a four-goal run for the Trojans on the way to a 12-6 victory in a key Nassau B matchup.
Cascadden was also his usual dominant self at the faceoff X, winning 21 of 22.
“Winning the faceoffs really helped us,” Luke Schmitt said. “We needed a spark to help us get going; we should have come out that way but we didn’t.”
Schmitt finished with three goals, all coming in the second quarter, a period in which Garden City outscored MacArthur 6-2.
“I think they’re a very good team and they jumped out on us at the start,” Garden City coach Steve Finnell said. “It’s a huge week for us to play Carey and MacArthur and we’re coming off the Woodstick Classic on Saturday. It took us a little while to get going but I attribute that to their defense and they played well on offense.”
Staub believes that the five first-half goals the Trojans gave up were too many, but after allowing three goals early the Garden City defense gave up only three more over the final 40:12 of game time.
“We really picked it up in the second half and our offense did a great job throughout,” Staub said. “We were able to get it going and I’m happy with the result.”
The game became a defensive battle in the second half with each team scoring only one goal.
Mike Fargione and Jack Archer each had two goals and two assists, Jay Ottomanelli had two goals and Ryan McKenna had three assists for Garden City (9-2, 5-0)
“This was an important game for us considering the schedule and the standings,” Cascadden said.
Joey Forchelli had three goals and James Napoli scored twice for MacArthur (7-4, 3-1).
“I don’t think we made a lot of adjustments but we had to pick ourselves up after coming out a little slow,” Fargione said. “They’re very talented and we know we’re going to see them again.”
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.
