Sweeney, Crosby Lead JV Team

Midfielders Sean Sweeney and Brendan Crosby each scored a pair of goals Sunday as Farmingdale's 9th/10th grade lacrosse team fell to Floral Park, 10-8, in a Long Island indoor lacrosse league game played at Oceanside.

Also scoring goals were midfielders Steve Pullen and Ryan Geoghegan, and attacks John Castellane and Scot Gale, a 7th-grader playing up. Pullen added two assists, while attacks Phil Alesia, Mike Nocerino and Gale had an assist each.

Tied at 6 at halftime, Floral Park capitalized on two quick man-up situations to secure their final margin with three minutes left. The Dalers had four strong shots on goal to Floral Park's one after that, but they weren't able to punch the ball in.

Farmingdale shots by Sweeney and Geoghegan caromed off the goal's iron frame, a rifle shot by Pullen was saved by the goalie, and Gale was stuffed by the goalie after making a great face-dodge to get to him one-on-one. "I thought it might dribble in because it was bouncing around for a second, but the goalie finally found it and pounced on it. With that save, and the catch on Pullen's rifle shot, the Floral Park goalie really saved them in the end," coach Reg Gale said.

The addition this week of sophomores Sean Sweeney in the midfield and Chris Piechota at defense gave the Dalers strong, experienced players that were able to challenge Floral Park's big sophomores, Gale said. That allowed Farmingdale to move John Gaffney to midfield, strengthening that rotation considerably.

"We did much better overall this week than last," he added. "We needed a week to shake off the rust, I think, and adding the two experienced sophomores helped. We're in the top division in a two-division JV league, which means we're facing mostly sophomores. Now all we need to do is walk that thin line better between being aggressive on defense, and being man-down."

Also playing well were defenseman Frank Canizio and Ken Turner, middies Andrew Broten, Chris Moore, Steve Maier and Bob Cannon, attack Jim McNamara, and goalie Corey Gibbons, who made several fine saves.