Sports

Lynbrook/East Rockaway Stings leave their mark

Local Long Island Junior Soccer League team to go on to National Championship

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After winning the Arch Capital Group Cup last June, the Lynbrook/East Rockaway Sting added to their trophy case by defeating another Long Island Junior Soccer League (LIJSL) team, the Garden City Rebels, 4-0, in the Boys-Under-12 State Open Cup final. This game for supremacy in the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) was played on May 30 at Stringham Park in LaGrange.

Shai Azoulay scored two goals, Derek Rivera added another, and Leo Guarino scored on a direct kick to give Lynbrook/East Rockaway the championship. Keeper Vincent O’Connell had the shutout in goal.

“It was a total team effort to give our squad the State Cup championship,” Lynbrook/East Rockaway coach Jim O’Connell. “Our boys play team-oriented soccer.”

Lynbrook/East Rockaway received a $2,000 check from Eastern New York to defer their costs during the National Championship Series. They will be playing in the Regionals from June 26 to 30 in Barboursville, West Virginia.Garden City was awarded the Howard Rubenstein Sportsmanship Award for the fair play they demonstrated on the field.Now retired, Rubenstein was involved in every facet of New York soccer for decades, and is a member of the Halls of Fame of Eastern New York, the US Amateur Soccer Association and the Long Island Junior Soccer League.

With over 100,000 youth soccer players, both boys and girls, and more than 25,000 volunteers, the non-profit Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association stretches from Montauk Point, Long Island to the Canadian border. Members are affiliated with 11 leagues throughout the association, which covers the entire state of New York east of Route 81.

ENYYSA exists to promote and enhance the game of soccer for children and teenagers between the ages of 5 and 19 years old, and to encourage the healthy development of youth players, coaches, referees and administrators. All levels of soccer are offered, from intramural, travel team and premier players as well as Special Children.

No child who wants to play soccer is turned away. ENYYSA is a proud member of the United States Soccer Federation and United States Youth Soccer Association. For more information, please log on to www.enysoccer.com/, which receives nearly 300,000 hits annually from the growing soccer community.


Randy Vogt is the Director of Public Relations, Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association.