Knights’ Offense Overwhelms Mineola Boys Lacrosse

The Mineola Mustangs boys lacrosse team dropped a tough 12-7 decision to the visiting Floral Park Knights (1-1, 3-4) Friday, unable to overcome an early deficit despite an intense four quarters of lacrosse on the chilly fields of .

The loss dropped Mineola to 0-3 in league action, 3-6 overall, and was Floral Park’s first win in Conference IV.

“I thought it would be tighter than this, but Floral Park was a tough competitive team,” Mineola coach Mike Perro said. “We had some communication problems, and they scored a couple of fast break transition goals, that was the difference in the game. That and their ability to score in man-up situation – they had some kids who could really shoot the ball.”

In total, the Mustangs handed Floral Park six man-up opportunities on the day, and they were able to score on four of them.

Two minutes into the game, an odd defensive play might have signaled danger for the Mustangs. With 10:35 on the clock, a Floral Park shot got past goalie Matt Moro, and it was only a quick stick from defender Amadeau Goncalves that kept the ball from going in.

Good defense in the first man-up situation at the 9 minute mark and the first of Brian Gaffney’s four goals of the day to put Mineola up 1-0 at 8:52 in the first gave Mustang fans reason to be hopeful. However after returning middie Steven Napolitano (2 assists) won his second faceoff of the day, it was all Floral Park for the rest of the quarter – rattling off four goals in the space of three minutes and winning each faceoff after to control things.

In the second, Mineola played toe to toe with the Knights as Nick Fabiano (1 goal, 2 assists) found Joe Massaro (1 goal, 1 assist) in front of the net for a goal, and Napolitano hooked up with Gaffney to keep the deficit at 3, with 3:33 left in the half.

But things began to erode in the third quarter following a pass to Gaffney from Napolitano to tighten the score to 10-6 with five second left in the third.

Unfortunately for the Mustangs, they were unable to muster a rally in the fourth quarter.

“This game had playoff implications for us,” Perro said. “But hopefully we will see them again later in the season.”

The Mustangs will next pay a visit to Seaford (1-1, 5-1 overall) on April 26 at 4:30 p.m.

Next up is a visit to Seaford (1-1, 5-1 overall) Apr 26 at 4:30.