Oceanside drops pivotal game

After a couple of confidence-building victories to put a poor start in the closet, Oceanside’s boys’ lacrosse team was faced with a pivotal Conference A-I game at MacArthur last Saturday morning but came up short amidst a rash of turnovers and penalties.

The emotionally charged Generals closed with three unanswered goals to take an important 6-4 decision that could eventually decide both team’s playoff fates in Nassau Class A. Gerard Cunningham converted a feed from Tom McAndrew with 1:53 remaining in the third quarter to put MacArthur ahead for good. Ryan Scarano provided an insurance goal just 27 seconds into the fourth, and the hosts blanked the Sailors for the last 16 minutes.

“We’ve been hit really hard by injuries and it’s unlikely we’ll make the playoffs at the rate we’re going,” Oceanside coach Bob Moltisanti said. “Today was frustrating from an offensive point of view. We didn’t catch and throw, and it led to a lot of turnovers. In a close game, a possession or two can make the difference.”

Sophomore Luke Schwasnick had a hat trick and senior Andrew Failla made 12 saves for the Sailors, who slipped to 2-4 in conference play and 2-7 overall. “I thought Andrew did a nice job of keeping us in the game,” Moltisanti said of Failla, who is working behind a young defense that saw juniors Nick Swanson and Jimmy McGuinness and sophomore Joey Denaro log most of the minutes. “It’s one we needed to build up our power points,” he added. “You could tell by their reaction how big a game it was.”

The game’s intensity level, Moltisanti said, was upped via the revenge factor. Back in the fall Oceanside’s football team went to MacArthur and pulled off a first-round playoff upset on the same field. “We have some football guys and they have some football guys, and I think a lot of that carried over,” he said of the gridiron clash.

The Generals struck twice early on Saturday and forced the Sailors to play catch-up most of the way. McAndrew opened the scoring at the 1:40 mark, and Brendan Smith notched the first of his two goals a little more than a minute later. Schwasnick converted a pass from junior Shane Saucier to make it 2-1 by the end of the first quarter.

Smith regained a two-goal advantage for MacArthur 4:39 into the second, but Oceanside’s offense clicked on back-to-back possessions and it pulled even by halftime on goals by Schwasnick and senior John Grassi. The Sailors led for the only time — 4-3 —  4:04 into the second half when Schwasnick beat Ryan Purcell (11 saves) on a break-in, but it was all Generals thereafter.

“They gave us a chance to win it, but we didn’t,” Moltisanti said.

Oceanside’s offense, which is without junior Will Remsen (knee) for the season and senior John Ramalho (concussion) for an undetermined amount of time, got healthy against struggling Hempstead and Valley Stream District recently. The unit totaled 28 goals in the two wins, with Schwasnick netting nine and fellow soph Ryan Hertling six.