South Side upends Long Beach

Long Beach rolled into its Nassau Class B boys’ lacrosse quarterfinal playoff matchup against South Side having won nine of its past 10 while scoring double-digits in goals in each of the victories.

The Marines were seeing double again last Friday afternoon, albeit not on the scoreboard but on the Hofstra turf in the form of Cyclones’ sophomore twins Mike and Tim Leake. Mike had a hat trick and one assist, Tim dominated draws, winning 13 of 18, and senior goalie Dennis LiCalzi made 10 saves to lead South Side to a 9-6 victory.

“We’re thrilled,” said Cyclones coach Steve DiPietro, whose team dropped a 9-8 decision to Long Beach on April 7. “A lot of kids stepped up and played unbelievable today in a big spot,” he added. “They carried out the game plan and won the individual battles we knew it would take.”

South Side (8-8) advanced to face defending Long Island Class B champion Lynbrook, which is undefeated through 17 games, in a semifinal on Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Hofstra. The Owls took the regular-season meeting, 10-6, on April 28.

“It feels great,” said Tim Leake, who won five of six draws in the first quarter to set the tone. “We struggled through a tough non-conference schedule and some people counted us out, but we came in here with a lot of confidence and hoping to pay them back from the regular-season loss,” he added.

Long Beach (13-4), which never led but rallied from three goals down in the first quarter to pull even with 9:26 left in regulation, got three goals and one assist from sophomore Sam Brown. “South Side had a great scheme and outplayed us,” Marines coach Jim Kaspar said. “They slowed the game down and held down [Chris] Parler and [Matt] Varian, our two best players, and they beat us on face-offs and groundballs.”

Varian, who ranked in the top 10 in the county in scoring with 51 goals and 28 assists, was held off the scoresheet, while Parler’s only point came when he assisted on junior Austin Gibbons’ game-tying goal. DiPietro credited defensive workhorses Stephen Parker and Joe LiCalzi with containing Long Beach’s one-two punch.

“We just played straight-up defense, our best against their best,” DiPietro said. “We knew how dangerous Varian and Parler can be, they’re two of the better players in the county, and our guys met the challenge head-on.”

South Side’s winning goal came off a turnover with 5:53 remaining off the stick of senior attackman Brandon Zenick. Mike Leake and Parker added insurance goals with 3:38 and 1:17 left, respectively, after two more faceoff wins by Tim Leake.

“Faceoffs were a huge part of the game for us,” DiPietro said. “With Tim going up against an athlete like Parler, we were looking to go 50-50. Anything better than that would be a bonus, and it ended up being a big bonus because Tim was nothing short of tremendous.”