South Side planting seeds

It’s all about playoff seeding for the South Side boys’ lacrosse team as it tries to finish its conference schedule strong over the final week of the regular season.

The Cyclones split their first four conference games of the spring with three remaining, as of press time, and control their own destiny as they fight for what they hope is a No. 3 seed behind division rivals Garden City and Manhasset. South Side improved its overall record to 8-4 with a 16-1 thrashing of Baldwin on April 24.

But South Side has struggled against some of the county’s top-tiered teams. Its four losses have come against schools with a combined 19-0 conference record and 40-3 mark overall after last weekend’s play. It was edged by Syosset (8-7) in the season opener and had a late rally fall short against Cold Spring Harbor (8-6) on March 26 before defeats to Garden City (14-3) and Manhasset (13-3.)

Despite not playing on the level of Nassau’s elite thus far, Cyclones coach Steve DiPietro believes his young roster will rise to the occasion when it counts.

“So far, we’re kind of where I expected to be,” he said. “I think the boys, as the season has gone on, have learned what we’re capable of doing.”

One of the remaining games is against third-place Hewlett (8-3, 3-1 Conference B1), which is one-half game ahead of South Side in the conference. The Cyclones earned the third seed last year and beat Calhoun in the Nassau Class B quarterfinals before falling to Garden City 3-2 in overtime in the semis.

Scoring depth hasn’t been a problem as 18 different players have found the back of the net and 21 have notched at least one point. Sophomore T.J. Sheehan had a monster April with 15 goals and eight assists in six games and leads the squad with 27 tallies.

Junior William Pickett is the team’s leading scorer with 46 points while seeing his offensive role unexpectedly shift. He had 18 goals and seven assists in his first six games, but skewed the other way in April with five goals and 16 helpers.

“I said to him, ‘You’re going to get everyone’s No. 1 [defensive] guy now,” DiPietro said. “Halfway through, they scouted us and tried to take him out and he has really adjusted.”

That defensive strategy has also helped senior attackman Brian Albertson, who has been a solid third scoring option with 19 goals.

Junior long pole Nick LiCalzi has continued to anchor a strong defensive corps with 75 ground balls and 34 forced turnovers. DiPietro has also credited junior Ezavier Brewster for quietly raising his game as the season has gone on.

Senior Dylan Harloff (54 saves) and junior Colin Hamilton (17) are both continuing to see time in goal and DiPietro said that Harloff will likely get the starting nod in two of the last three games.

The Cyclones visited MacArthur (4-7, 1-4) earlier this week and will finish against Carey (5-7, 1-3) on May 7.