North Shore suffers rare loss

The North Shore boys' lacrosse team walked in to Locust Valley last Saturday coming off the heels of a stellar 10-3 victory over Floral Park just a few days prior. They soon walked out of Locust Valley later that day, having suffered a hard-fought 4-3 loss.

North Shore started off their week against Floral Park on Wednesday, tallying up 10 goals over the two halves, working well transitioning from defensive positions to offensive ones.

Senior Ryan Aughavin led the charge with four points (one goal, three assists), along with senior Liam Knehr who mirrored Aughavin’s efforts. John Alfarone, Forrest Demetri and Stephen Grabher all contributed two points while Andrew Kahn, Mike Albanes, and Donald Ahrens all added a point as well. Goalie Jake Lennon played extremely well, adding 12 more saves to his season total.

On Saturday, however, the Vikings faced off with Locust Valley in an away game that was sure to be a hard-nosed battle. North Shore had difficulty gaining traction, switching from their strong defensive unit to creating varied offensive opportunities. 

“Our defense is playing well, we just need all of our offense to fill more roles and be a little more aggressive and create different opportunities,” North Shore head coach Aaron Kozlowski said.

Lennon had another good game in goal for North Shore and the defense was stellar against a strong offense where Angelo Caiazzo of Locust Valley scored a pair of goals.

“(Lennon) had his two best games of the season in our last two games,” Kozlowski said. “He’s progressively been getting better over the course of the season and he’s been playing confident… We definitely love to have a confident goalie going into the playoffs.”

North Shore now sits at 11-3 and is poised for a playoff position in this year’s Nassau Boys CD-1 playoffs. However, they still sit in limbo between the fourth and fifth seed. That dilemma will work itself out this Wednesday as the Vikings will do battle with the Eagles of Bethpage to determine the seeding.

Bethpage (10-4) is a tough team that will look to scrap and claw for that fourth seed, however, the equally tough and talented North Shore unit look to continue their great season play.

“Bethpage is a tough team and they have a couple of good offensive players, along with a good goalie,” Kozlowski said. “They’re a bunch of hard-nose, work hard, good effort kids. They’re gonna get after us but we’re going to match that intensity and execute.”

With the Vikings looking to improve on their deficiencies from the season, they could very possibly be a force in this late portion of the season and pushing into the playoffs. The work ethic and desire to win must come from the top, the experienced seniors, and work its way down the line.

“At this point, we look to the seniors who have been there before to lead us in practice,” Kozlowski said. “It all comes down to who wants it more now. Everyone is a good team in the playoffs so it comes down to the effort and the hustle plays. That comes from within.”