Joey Spallina erupts for four goals in second half in Mount Sinai victory
Joey Spallina #22 of Mt. Sinai, center, gets congratulated by teammates after scoring in the third quarter against Garden City at St. Anthony's High School on Friday, April 22, 2022. Credit: James Escher
The setting was postcard perfect at St. Anthony’s — blue sky, warm air, sun-splashed turf. And two of the best high school boys lacrosse teams around were squaring off, with a national TV audience along for the ride on ESPNU, too.
“I hope they only saw the second half,” said the star attraction, Mount Sinai’s Joey Spallina, the country’s top recruit in the Class of 2022.
The Mustangs were No. 9 nationally in the Inside Lacrosse rankings, but they were behind at halftime. They trailed No. 21 Garden City by two and didn’t own a goal, and Brendan Staub was blanketing Spallina.
Then the Syracuse-bound attackman erupted for four goals and an assist. Lucas Laforge delivered three goals, Brayden Wilcken made eight saves overall, and Mount Sinai claimed an 8-5 win Friday in the GEICO High School Lacrosse Showcase.
So the defending Long Island Class C champ is 11-0 and has now beaten the defending Class B champ (Garden City) and the defending Class A champ (Northport).
“It’s just going to show that we are battle-tested and that we are ready to go for crunch time, which is coming up,” Spallina said.
Or as Mustangs coach Harold Drumm put it: “I think it shows that Class C, it’s a great class of lacrosse on Long Island and in the country … Sometimes they’re overlooked because they’re small schools.”
Lacrosse fans got to see these C guys excel on TV.
“It felt great,” Laforge said. “It was an awesome experience. ESPN, what else do you want?”
Spallina beat Chris Allen (17 saves) 53 seconds into the fourth for a 6-4 lead. Jay Ottomanelli followed with his second for Garden City (6-2). But Spallina countered.
The great No. 22 scored from a sharp left angle with 6:07 remaining before adding an exclamation point with 53.9 seconds left.
“You can’t hold down 22 and the gang for 48 minutes,” Garden City coach Steve Finnell said. “Brendan Staub did an amazing job on him. But they have other guys as well.”
Laforge scored 27 seconds into the third, cutting it to 2-1.
Spallina spun inside and finally brought Mount Sinai even at 3.
Less than a minute later, Laforge put in a rebound. Ryan Maher tied it at 4, but Laforge untied it again.
“It was probably,” Spallina said, “our best half of lacrosse we’ve played in a while.”
