Playoffs within East Meadow's reach

East Meadow entered the final two weeks of regular season play on the lacrosse field with three consecutive Conference I victories. With a chance to make it four straight victories overall, the Jets (6-5 overall, 3-3 in Conference I) came up on the short end of an 8-5 decision to non-league foe Plainedge last Friday.

“We made some mistakes and they took advantage,” East Meadow coach Barney Dell’Aquila said, noting that goals were also tough to come by on offense. “We had some chances and just didn’t score. The opportunities were there, we just didn’t finish.”

In winning three straight Conference I games over Plainview-JFK, Uniondale and Hempstead, beating opposing goalies is exactly what the Jets excelled at. Over the three games, they scored 47 goals and allowed only three. The last victory in the string was the 12-1 decision at the Hawks on April 28, in which junior Sean Hinchy led the way with four goals and an assist. Senior Tom Rhodes had three goals, while junior Brandon Noblett and sophomore Chris Whitenack each scored twice. Sophomore Dylan Curry had one goal.

Defensively, the Jets played well enough to keep senior goalie Max Schefler out of the line of fire. Upon his removal from the game midway through the fourth quarter, Schefler had faced three shots, only one of which was in the first half. “There weren’t a lot of shots,” Dell’Aquila said. “Defensively we played very solid. We didn’t get beat or take any unnecessary risks.”

Though Plainedge tried to slow the game down in the first half, and even received a stall warning from the referee, the Jets headed to the break with a 4-0 lead. They exploded in the third quarter with six goals to turn the game into a blowout. “We just finished in the second half,” Dell’Aquila said.

In the 17-2 victory over the Knights on April 24, East Meadow had a 12-goal lead at intermission and 10 players scored at least once. That was on the heels of an 18-0 victory over Hempstead on April 21, in which 11 players combined for all of the scoring.

The three-game winning streak, at the very least, put East Meadow smack in the middle of the playoff hunt, and to some degree, destiny is in its own hands. Entering the final two weeks, four other teams were within one win above or below the Jets in the Conference I standings, making the final three games—road battles at Farmingdale (7 p.m. on Friday) and Valley Stream Central at Firemen’s’ Field (4:45 p.m. on Tuesday), and the home finale on May 13 against Oceanside (4:30 p.m.) all the more important.

“We did win three in a row and we took care of business,” Dell’Aquila said of climbing back into the race after an 0-3 start in Conference I play. “But [a playoff berth] is going to depend on what we do the rest of the way.”