This season should be an interesting and challenging one. This year's Vikings are a young bunch that is eager to improve. Their attitude and willingness to learn are their strengths. Although young, the pitching rotation led by senior Tom Lucchese seems to be a promising one with the addition of left handed thrower Danny Schmiemann who played out of district for the last few years, but now is back and looks sharp. Sophomore Patrick Chaputian has tremendous potential and should heavily contribute this year. Other promising pitchers include returning varsity pitcher, the hard-throwing Chris Lempenski, the crafty lefty junior Patrick Cunningham and sophomore James Vena.

Defensively, most starting positions are wide open for the taking. The players who look sharpest during the preseason scrimmages may wind up with a starting job.

Offensively, the Vikings are going to have to manufacture runs. Typically, young teams have difficulty driving in runs. The Vikings may depend on small ball and aggressive base running to cross the plate this year.

The team has two returning starters in Vinnie Tesoriero at CF and Thomas Lucchese, a four-year starter at pitcher and shortstop. A lot of weight falls on these two young men. They have a responsibility to help mold the younger players and perform on the field daily.

Other varsity seniors include Ryan McDonough (OF), Chris Lempenski (pitcher), Steven Guererri (2B) and Ryan Berglin (OF). This year's juniors include Danny Schmiemann (P/OF), Nick Tesoriero (IF), Joe Schinko (3B/C), Phil Kaye (OF), Tom Mercadante (C), Chris Sikora (OF/C), Patrick Cunningham (P/1B) and Tom Boehm (OF). Sophomores are Patrick Chaputian (IF/P) and James Vena (IF/P).

This year's varsity coaches include Dom Gatti, Bob Trenkle and Shaun Manning. Junior varsity coach is Jeff Frankel.

The Vikings boys lacrosse team opened its season this week by splitting its first two games. The team dropped a 9-5 decision to Plainview on Tuesday, but bounced back with a win on Saturday.

The second of the week's non-league games was a thrilling 8-7 overtime victory over New Hyde Park. After trailing for most of the game, the Vikings pulled even with 1:57 remaining in regulation time. The goal was scored by freshman Keith Lopez on an assist from fellow freshman Rob Grabher. It was Lopez's second goal of the game, and the second goal of his varsity career. Goalie Pete Treiber forced the overtime period by making a point-blank save with 10 seconds remaining. The game winner was shot by Chris Palliser on an assist from Joe Valasiadis. Valasiadis finished the day with 3 goals and 4 assists while Palliser added 2 goals and one assist. The squad's record is 1-1.