Shoreham scores five straight to redeem last season’s loss
The Wildcats scored early and often, with senior Jason Curran’s four goals leading the way, as the Shoreham-Wading River boys’ lacrosse team downed crosstown rival Mount Sinai, 9-4.
“It’s great to get back at them for last year,” Curran said of Mount Sinai handing Shoreham one of its two losses of the season. “They’re the top dog. Since they won counties least year, it’s great to be able to finish against them with a nice win.”
It seemed like they may come out on top again, as senior Matt Boscarino started the scoring nearly halfway into the first quarter, with a rocket to the left side to break the ice. Mount Sinai senior goalkeeper Peter Mastrorocco also made a couple of early stops.
Despite opening strong, Mount Sinai’s defense turned the ball over several times in a row, and from there, Shoreham opened the floodgates to five straight goals through the opening of the second stanza. Despite the scores, Mastrorocco kept his team in the game, making five saves in that span on his way to 15 on the afternoon.
“I felt good, but I can’t do well unless I have a good defense, so I give that to them,” he said. “We locked down the wing shots and the crease shots.”
But Mount Sinai struggled to secure a faceoff win or a ground ball race. The team scored one goal in the second, and again to open the fourth, but that goal with 10:54 remaining was the last one they’d rattle the cage with.
“I think we need to work on our ground balls and our shooting, and we’ll be a big team to beat,” Mastrorocco said. “I think the team is making progress every single day. We work as hard as we can on and off the field and we’re putting in a lot of work.”
On the other side of the field, Shoreham’s scores were showing how far the work has already taken them.
The game heated up as Mount Sinai closed the gap to 7-4, but the Wildcats remained composed.
Junior attack Chris Gray fed Curran a pass, but Mastrorocco stopped the shot. Curran still scored amid frenzy in front of the net, on his next attempt seconds later, to an open left side.
“When my shots go in, I’m happy,” Curran said. “But I wouldn’t be scoring goals if it wasn’t for people like Jon Constant and Chris Gray feeding me.”
Gray said Joe Miller, a junior going to Navy, remaining poised at faceoff, helped the team to victory.
“He did a great job today, winning and giving us all the possessions that allowed us to score,” he said. “We had a lot of intensity coming into the game and it carried throughout all four quarters. Our defense looked great. They went man-up a couple of times, the other team, and we shut them down. The chemistry on offense today was really flowing for us.”
Eighth-grader Xavier Arline and Gray scored twice and added an assist each. Gray said his team not only has the bond, but the leadership and talent to get to the playoffs.
Curran liked that his team played smart while dominating the time of possession to secure the win. But he’s never satisfied.
“We’re always trying to get better moving forward,” he said. “If we can continue to play together, play unselfish and play smart lacrosse, we can go far, but if this is the best game we play all year, that’s not good. We want to get better after every week.”
