Syosset High School's Roller Hockey Club was crowned the Islandwide High School Champions for the 2002-2003 season by beating North Babylon in a best of three series, two games to none.

Syosset, the Nassau County Champs, entered the championships with a record of 17 - 7 and was currently on an eight-game winning streak. North Babylon, the Suffolk County Champions, entered the finals with a record of 20 - 4 and was on an eight-game winning streak as well. Both teams had played brilliantly in the quarter finals, semifinals and finals of their respective county championships. They both defeated the regular season league champions to make it into the finals. Syosset had to defeat Mepham in the quarter finals of the Nassau County Championships and North Babylon had to defeat Half Hollow Hills in the finals of the Suffolk County Championships. Both Mepham and Half Hallow Hills had regular season records of 19 - 1.

The first game of the finals saw Syosset win 5 to 2 in a very hotly contested and physical game. Syosset's junior Jonathan Mosenson started the scoring 20 seconds into the game, on an unassisted goal, right from the game's first faceoff. Three minutes later, North Babylon tied the score on an unassisted goal by Craig Klouda. With seven minutes and 50 seconds left, Andrew Stern of Syosset scored, putting Syosset up by a score of 2 to 1. The first half saw each team assessed one penalty and the score ended with Syosset leading 2 to 1.

Syosset's Coach David Mosenson said in an after-game interview, that he wanted to try to "get in a quick goal to start the second half and subsequently Mosenson with Steven Gaon on the offense to start the half." Normally, Mosenson is on defense. The plan worked as Syosset scored 2-1/2 minutes later on some beautiful passing from Jonathan Fuss to Mosenson and ultimately to Gaon, who scored to put Syosset up, 3 to 1.

At this point, the game started to take on a completely new look as North Babylon started to become much more physical and was called for several penalties. Not backing down, the Syosset team also stepped it up a notch and started to draw several penalties of their own. With 18 minutes to go in the first half, Mosenson scored his second goal of the game on a pass from Danny Kubryk, to put Syosset up 4 to 1 and a commanding lead.

At this point, Syosset started to control the puck and work the clock down. North Babylon scored its second score of the game as Klouda scored on a pass from Louis Pickerillie to make the score 4 to 2. Bryan Rubin was playing an exceptional game as goalie and the rest of the Syosset team was putting insurmountable pressure on the North Babylon players so that they couldn't even get any good shots on goal. With eight minutes and 40 seconds left in the game, Mosenson scored his third goal on an assist from Gaon and Syosset never looked back and finished the game with a 5 to 2 victory.

The second game of the Islandwide Championship saw Syosset come away with a 5 to 4 victory in a game that for the first half was a "blowout." Syosset came into the game with one mission and that was to put the championship away and not have to play North Babylon a third game for the championship. As it had been the pattern all year, Syosset was led by Jonathan Mosenson's three goals and two assists and Steven Gaon's two goals. Jonathan Fuss also added an assist.

For the first 10 minutes, the game was scoreless and both teams seemed to be playing a "little bit cautious." At 11 minutes and 32 seconds into the first period, Gaon scored on an unassisted goal and put Syosset up 1 to 0. Two minutes later, Mosenson got his first goal on an assist from Fuss. With a minute and 37 seconds left in the first period, Gaon scored his second goal on an assist from Mosenson. Goalie Bryan Rubin stopped all five shots that were directed at him. The first half saw Syosset's defense and offense completely dominate the North Babylon team.

The second half started off very much as a continuation of the first half with Mosenson scoring goals, four and seven minutes into the second half, and putting Syosset up 5 to 0. At this point, North Babylon mounted a tremendous comeback by scoring four goals in the next seven minutes. Joe Nocelloa had two goals, Kraiy Klouda and Joey Pennisi each added goals to make the game a fiercely contested one for the last eight minutes.

At this point, Syosset's Coach David Mosenson went with a game plan of controlling the puck and not worrying about scoring and limiting the scoring opportunities of North Babylon. Max Altschuler and Danny Kubryk did a great job helping out the other players in controlling the puck. Eight minutes and 32 seconds later the game ended with Syosset winning by a score of 5 to 4 and capping a remarkable season.

Last year, the Syosset Roller Hockey Club also won the Nassau County Championships, but lost to Half Hollow Hills East in the Islandwide Championships. This year was the first year that they were able to bring home the Islandwide Championship.

Congratulations to all players on the roster! The underclassmen are: Jonathan Mosenson, Andrew Fonnan, Danny Kubryk, Ben Segal, Jonathan Fuss, Louis Judge, Andrew Stern, Matt Landsberg, Brian Davis, Max Altschuler and Scott Kaplan. The seniors graduating from this year's team are Steven Gaon and Bryan Rubin.

The Championship trophies for the 2002 - 2003 season will be displayed at the Syosset High School Trophy Case along with other individual awards that were presented last year and will be presented at this year's upcoming awards banquet.

If anybody has any questions about trying out for the Syosset High School Roller Hockey Club, Varsity or Junior Varsity team, they should contact David Mosenson at 349-0555, ext. 13.