Another winning year for Bulldogs

Missed scoring opportunities in the first half ultimately came back to haunt Hewlett in its 10-7 season-ending loss to Roslyn in a Nassau Class B boys’ lacrosse first-round playoff game.

“We had a very good year but a disappointing finish,” Bulldogs coach Chris Passuello said. “We were up 1-0 and our goalie [Michael Fine] made a bunch of big saves to keep it that way. But our shooting wasn’t good and we weren’t able to give him a bigger lead to work with.”

Pat Woods had four goals and Michael Lefcourt made 20 saves to lead Roslyn, which lost in the quarterfinals to five-time defending county champion Garden City. Hewlett got two goals apiece from seniors Jake Geiger and Chris Loria and junior Michael Gray, as well as 10 saves from Fine.

“We’re similar teams and we knew it was going to be a tough game,” Passuello said. “They’re very athletic. They won the groundball battle and out-possessed us.”

As was the case throughout 2011, the Bulldogs played shorthanded. Sophomore midfielder Zach Richman sat out with a broken wrist suffered in the regular-season finale, senior middie Jonathan Alfieri was sidelined with a broken ankle, and junior middie Adam Betesh was unable to get on the field following winter knee surgery.

“It was an injury plagued year,” Passuello said. “We had four major ones, which is difficult to overcome.”

Junior standout Sam Martorella, who like Betesh suffered a serious knee injury during football season and underwent surgery, returned at the start of May and in six games scored eight goals, including a dramatic winner with two seconds left in the first overtime period against Bethpage. “The fact Sam played at all was amazing,” Passuello said. “He was probably 75 percent, but he still helped us. He and Adam worked incredibly hard to get back. Adam had a meniscus issue on top of the tear.”

After falling to powerful Manhasset and knocking off Great Neck North, the Bulldogs suffered a pivotal 8-7 double-OT loss to Plainedge that dropped them from second to fourth place in Conference B-II. The Red Devils tied it with two seconds remaining in regulation and scored 11 seconds into the second overtime. “We had a great first half, followed by a poor second half,” Passuello said of the Plainedge game. “There were elements we didn’t continue to do, like pick up groundballs and go aggressive to the cage. It was a devastating loss that changed our playoff seed dramatically.”

Hewlett finished 9-7 overall, marking its 10th consecutive season with a winning record. The Bulldogs won all nine of their games when allowing six goals or fewer and scored in double digits on 10 occasions. Gray (28 goals, 33 assists), junior playmaker Mark Rizzo and junior defender Jared Brent earned All-County honors. Geiger (34 goals) and Loria (24) were Honorable Mention All-County, while Richman, Fine and senior Josh Rivlin were selected All-Conference.