Hewlett earns playoff victory

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Members of the Hewlett boys’ lacrosse team knew they would have to find a way to contain Herricks’ two top offensive players, in Sal Cipriano and Mark Marciano, if they were to come away victorious in their Nassau Class B first-round playoff matchup on May 11.

In the end the Bulldogs did just that, shutting down the dynamic duo when it mattered most, and riding a strong offensive start of their own to a 12-9 victory.

“Herricks was one of the more well-coached teams we’ve played this year, and our boys fought extremely tough,” Hewlett coach Steven DeNapoli said. (Cipriano and Marciano) were excellent, but I think we just limited them, and we had a couple of our own on offense that of helped us out.”

One of the players stepping up for the Bulldogs was Alex Vardaro. The talented freshman found the back of the net six times in the first half, helping his team build an early lead over the Highlanders.

“I can’t say enough about Alex,” DeNapoli said. “He’s been struggling through some injuries and some pain, but he’s been nothing but positive through the whole thing. The kid was just unbelievable. He amazes me every single day, and today was no different.”

After Hewlett fell behind 1-0 early, Vardaro tied the game up with 6:34 remaining in the opening quarter. Then less than 20 seconds later, Ethan Grossman scored to give the Bulldogs their first lead of the contest.

Vardaro would then score three consecutive goals over the next 4:18 of play to give his team a commanding 5-1 advantage. Hewlett would end the quarter up 6-2.

Early on in the second, Jeff Rizzo and Vardaro would each score to expand the Bulldogs lead to six. Cipriano and Marciano would stop the bleeding a bit for Herricks, each scoring a goal to cut Hewlett’s lead to 8-4 going into the half.

In the third, the Highlanders came out strong, scoring the first two goals of the quarter. Then late in the third, with 7.1 seconds remaining, Marciano would score to cut Hewlett’s lead to just 9-8.

But in the fourth quarter the Bulldogs were able to calm things down, and closed out the victory with the help of two goals from Grossman and a goal from Rizzo. They also did a better job of possessing the ball in the final quarter, limiting the chances of Cipriano and Marciano.

“I knew they were gonna give us their best shot coming out of halftime,” DeNapoli said. “Cipriano and Marciano were just taking over at one point, but if we could just limit them and control them, I knew that we would get out of it alive. Then it came down to face-offs and ground balls, and once we started winning those, I knew we’d be home safe.”

The win proved to be an exciting final home game of the season for the Bulldogs. On May 14, Hewlett’s season came to an end when it fell to Garden City in the quarterfinals at Hofstra by a final of 10-3.