Lawrence advances in soccer playoffs

Winning three straight to close the regular season earned Lawrence a home game in the opening round of the Nassau Class A boys’ soccer playoffs and last Saturday it took advantage of the situation.

The Golden Tornadoes eliminated Conference A-III rival Division, 3-1, on goals by senior Henry Canales, freshman Kelvin Larios and junior Edgar Quintanilla. Senior goalkeeper Kaith Lopez made eight saves for No. 8 Lawrence, which advanced to meet No. 1 seed Manhasset in the quarterfinals.

“I thought it was tremendous that we went into the playoffs on a winning streak,” Coach Patrick Leary said after Lawrence made its first appearance in the post-season in five years. “There’s a comfort level playing at home. We came out firing and played great from the start.”

The teams played twice in conference play and each blew out the other at home. The Green Dragons, seeded No. 9, won the most recent meeting 5-0 on Oct. 8. Lawrence won the first battle, 5-1.

Canales, who entered the playoffs with eight goals and six assists, had a hand in all three goals. He opened the scoring by converting a pass from the team’s assist leader, senior Joel Lippolis (11), set up Larios with seven minutes left in the first half for a 2-1 lead and picked up the helper on Quintanilla’s insurance goal eight minutes into the second half.

“Henry was phenomenal in every phase,” Leary said of Canales, who has four goals and three assists in the last four games. “It was his best game of the year.”

Larios, who spent the regular season on the JV squad, was brought into the game to provide some energy up front and he did just that, Leary said. “That goal gave us a big boost before the half,” Leary said.

Even after Quintanilla made it a two-goal cushion, the Golden Tornadoes (10-3-1 overall) continued to push. “They have the ability to put the ball in the net,” Leary said. “We didn’t want to change our approach. We needed to stay aggressive.”

Senior Noe Avalos led Lawrence’s defense in front of Lopez, who has posted three shutouts. Senior Eddie Ramirez, and juniors Stefano Gaspard, Sam Sussman and Jeremy Diluzio also had strong defensive games. 

“We’ve got a very talented group,” Leary explained. “We hit a couple of bumps along the way and didn’t handle them well. We turned the corner a few weeks ago when we played at South Side. We lost 1-0, but we had a great second half and really battled.”

Wins over Malverne/East Rockaway, Plainedge and Hewlett followed the loss to South Side, the defending county Class A champs, and vaulted the Golden Tornadoes into second place in the conference. A playoff spot was secured Oct. 23 when Avalos and Lippolis scored in a 2-1 victory at Plainedge.

“We’ve been able to grind out games against quality teams,” Leary said. “We’ve won a lot of different ways.”