Eighth Graders Defeat Northport in Comeback

Down by two goals with three minutes left in the game, Farmingdale's 8th-grade winter lacrosse team launched a furious defensive effort that resulted in four straight turnovers and four quick goals to defeat Northport 11-9 Sunday in indoor lacrosse league played at the State University of New York (SUNY) Farmingdale.

The win put the Dalers at a perfect 3-0.

Farmingdale was led defensively in the final moments by Rob Bonagura, who twice recorded one-on-one steals, Terry Warehime, Mark Sweeney, Justin Venezia and goalie Chris Hardgrove.

"Early on we were just giving Northport too much room out front, and they were killing us with strong passes into their cutters," coach Reg Gale said. "In the second half, I told the kids to pressure the ball stronger, and they responded. Northport had a great bunch of lacrosse players out there, but we had the edge athletically, and that paid off."

The tide began to turn with an outstanding play by Venezia, who stole the ball on a pass in from the goalie, turned, and drove it back into the net to bring the Dalers to within one. Jonathan Engelke then slid a nice shot across the floor in a man-down situation on the next Daler run to tie it at 9.

Finally, the Dalers took the lead and the win with two straight scores on nice passes to cutters in the middle. First, the Cohen brothers combined on a score to make it 10-9. Then Sweeney hit Bonagura on a hard cut to make it 11-9.

Also playing well Sunday were: Chris Auletta; Walter Celenski; Randy Earl; Scot Gale; Mike Galgano, with a strong goal-to-goal run for a score early in the game; goalie Drew Kane, who did a fine job keeping Farmingdale close in the first half; John Kirk; Tim Rogers; and John Tortora.

"We're not real smooth yet offensively," Coach Gale said. "But this team pulls together a group that hasn't really played as a unit before, and there are no practices. Some were on the 7th-grade school team last year, some in PAL, and a few on the 8th-grade team. And we also have a few younger kids - Scot Gale and Jon Engelke, for instance, are two of the three top attackmen in the 7th-grade this year, but they haven't played at all with this group."

Gale added, "Given all that, the kids are doing well. They're keeping focus, even when they're behind."