Carey works OT to defeat Calhoun

It wasn’t exactly how Carey scripted it after securing the draw to begin overtime, but coach Tom Aiello felt pretty good when he saw No. 9 in an orange jersey pounce on a loose ball on the doorstep of Calhoun’s cage.

That's junior Chris Obertis, who’s scoop-and-score 38 seconds into OT gave the visiting fifth-seeded Seahawks a thrilling 7-6 victory over the fourth-seeded Colts in Friday’s Nassau Class B boys’ lacrosse quarterfinal matchup.

“Chris has been a beast on groundballs all year and is our leading scorer,” Aiello said. “There’s nobody else we’d rather have in that situation and he delivered. We battled for the draw to start overtime and got it. We weren’t sure if they were going to defend us with man or zone. We had a play set up that didn’t work out, but in the end it worked out.”

The goal was the second of the day and 49th of the season for Obertis, who had never scored in overtime before. “It’s a wild feeling,” he said. “I pride my game on groundballs because it’s one of the most important things in lacrosse. I was able to get this one on my stick and released the shot as fast as I could. It’s a great team win.”

Obertis went top shelf, just under the crossbar, allowing Carey (12-5) to avenge a regular-season defeat to Calhoun (15-2) and advance to the semifinals at Hofstra University against top-seeded South Side Tuesday at 4 p.m. Freshman Jayden Radow also scored twice and Ethan Pelzer, Christian Todaro and Christian Korszloski added one goal apiece for the Seahawks, who got a dozen saves from junior goaltender Rich Metzger.

“I’m still in shock,” Metzger said. “Calhoun beat us 6-4 on our field about a month ago and that wasn’t a good feeling. As a team we battled through some injuries this year and to be headed back to Hofstra is a nice accomplishment.”

Junior Harley Finkelstein had a hat trick and one assist and senior Mark Restivo turned aside seven shots for the Colts, who scored a pair of goals in the fourth quarter to force overtime but couldn’t complete the comeback.

“I’m really proud of our guys,” Calhoun coach Jim Femminella said. “I don’t think many people expected us to have this type of season. Today we didn’t shoot as well as we usually do and Carey made a few more big plays than us.”

The Seahawks netted four straight goals after Calhoun senior Shaun Walters opened the scoring at the 1:33 mark and led 4-1 late in the second quarter. Sophomore Nicholas Voll and Finkelstein then scored 38 seconds apart to cut the margin to one at halftime.

Obertis and Radow tallied in the third quarter and Carey, led defensively by TJ Wakely, Michael Lucsczynski and OT draw winner Billy Koutsoumbaris, took a 6-4 lead into the fourth.

Finkelstein connected 2:36 into the fourth and junior Ryan Burr scored the equalizer with 5:36 remaining in regulation. The Colts had a late man advantage but couldn’t cash in.

“It was an excellent game between two evenly matched teams,” Aiello said.