Strong season leaves South Side lacrosse coach confident

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South Side High School’s boys’ lacrosse season ended in a familiar place this year. The team advanced to the semifinals of the Nassau County Class B tournament for the second consecutive year, only to fall to the eventual champion, Garden City, in a hard-fought matchup at Hofstra.

The Cyclones finished the season with a record of 11-7, which includes being 6-2 within their own conference. It was a record built largely on the strength of their defense.

“Playing good defense has become our calling card over the last five or six seasons,” said Coach Steve DiPietro. “It keeps you in games, and at 5.8 goals allowed per game, we had the best defense in our conference.”

After a couple of tough out-of-conference losses to Cold Spring Harbor and Syosset at the start the season, South Side had some questions to answer. “We graduated some solid players last season,” DiPietro explained. “After the first few losses we didn’t know if this group would stick together, but they answered the call.”

DiPietro likes to use these challenging out-of-conference games as measuring stick for his all of his teams. “When you test your team against some of the Island’s best, you get a good idea of how far away from your goal your team is,” he said.

South Side closed out the regular season with two huge wins, including an overtime victory against Wantagh to secure one of the top seeds in the Class B1 tournament.

DiPietro has reason to expect even more of his next few teams. The eighth grade team went undefeated at 8-0-1, tying Garden City and beating Massapequa for the first time. The seventh graders also went 6-1-1, making DiPietro excited about the future of South Side Lacrosse.

“This is the deepest middle school group we’ve had since our last championship in 2004,” DiPietro said.