Massapequa boys lacrosse scores 14 of final 16 goals in win over Farmingdale

The ball found the cage. Just 9.7 seconds remained on the scoreboard clock. And Massapequa has been driven ever since that moment last June at Hofstra.

Half Hollow Hills took the Long Island Class A boys lacrosse championship game on a tiebreaking goal with just that much time left before overtime. More than 30 players returned this season for Massapequa after experiencing that harsh ending.

“We bring that up all the time,” coach Kevin Catalano said.

The players remember anyway.

“That’s what we’ve been thinking about all from when that happened,” senior attackman Tyler Byrnes said. “We are so amped to get back to that spot, hopefully.”

Drive plus talent. That has been a winning equation so far for the defending Nassau A champs. Take Thursday. Farmingdale came to Massapequa and dropped the home team in a four-goal hole in the second quarter. Then Massapequa erupted for 14 of the final 16 goals to claim a 16-8 victory in a Nassau I-A/I-B crossover game.

And so this team is an impressive 12-2 with two games left before the first faceoff of the postseason. All 12 wins have come by at least eight goals.

So how does Catalano think his guys are looking at this point?

“I think we look great,” he said. “Obviously, there’s things we have to clean up. We’ve got to put together a full 48 minutes. Can’t have lulls throughout the game. Good teams are going to capitalize off our mistakes.”

Byrnes and Nolan Wieczorek each posted four goals and two assists. Braden Tucker also scored four. Ryan Chabus excelled at the faceoff X, winning 22 times.

And Peter Konstantinakos made 13 saves in this comeback decision. It was a game that benefited the Mighty Madison Fund, which is in honor of Madison Milio, who died in 2021 from DIPG, a rare pediatric brain cancer. Her brother, Dylan Milio, is on the team.

“Just keep fighting,” Wieczorek said of falling behind 6-2, a Farmingdale lead constructed largely on four man-up goals. “We were playing for a bigger cause today. We were playing for Mighty Madison today.”

Milio made a long run and scored with 13.6 seconds left in the half. That sliced the deficit to 7-5 and launched a long run of 10 straight goals that ended in the fourth.

“It’s good to be able to deal with adversity,” Wieczorek said.

Massapequa outscored Farmingdale 7-0 in the third. Byrnes contributed three goals and one assist and Wieczorek came through with two goals and two assists in the quarter.

“Our attack and middies bond really well together,” Byrnes said. “And once we get going, I don’t think there’s a lot of people who can stop all of us together.”

Lucas Galvez and Sean Schumeyer each scored twice for the 10-4 Dalers.

“I think early on we did a good job of keeping it nice and simple and making good decisions with the ball,” coach Eric Dunne said. “We drew a couple of fouls, won some faceoffs.

“And then when things kind of tilted a little bit, we made some bad decisions, gave up some goals in transition. Those ones are a dagger as you can’t give up second-chance goals with these guys because they’re too potent.

“I think we’ve got to remind ourselves the simple play over and over again is what’s going to win us games. You’ve got to hope that you get a chance to play these guys again.”