Carey advances with big win

Like so many teams in the Nassau Class B boys’ lacrosse playoffs, the road Carey traveled to get there was a bumpy one. But the Seahawks, who suffered four straight losses out of the gate and entered the postseason with a sub-.500 record, are showing it’s not how you start, but how you finish.

Spectacular goaltending by junior Nick Fasano and clutch goals by senior Mike LoCicero propelled No. 10 Carey to a 9-7 upset of No. 7 Hewlett in a first-round playoff matchup last Friday. LoCicero’s fifth goal of the game, with 1:56 remaining, iced the victory and set up a quarterfinal date with No. 2 Wantagh at Hofstra on May 17 at 4:30 p.m.

“This was the best game I’ve ever played,” said Fasano, a junior who dazzled between the pipes with 21 saves. “The guys did a tremendous job in front of me. We’ve got a lot of young guys, but we kept our composure.”

The Bulldogs, who carried a three-game winning streak into the playoffs, got four goals from junior Zach Richman and 10 saves from junior goalie Justin Isaacs. “I’m disappointed for our guys because they worked so hard,” Hewlett coach Chris Passuello said. “Every game we play against Carey is close. Today they had an answer for everything we did.”

The Seahawks (7-9) never trailed after they were handed the game’s first goal, a Hewlett miscue, at the 8:28 mark. It was 3-0 before the Bulldogs scored a textbook transition goal, which began with a takeaway and clear by senior Mark Rizzo and ended with Richman converting a feed from senior Sam Martorella. Containing Martorella, Carey coach Tom Aiello said, was one of the keys.

“We run a zone, but we wanted to make sure we had a pole in his face so he didn’t get room to shoot,” Aiello said of Martorella, who totaled 12 goals in the last three regular-season games as Hewlett beat Lynbrook, New Hyde Park and Sewanhaka. 

Carey freshman Mike DeLeo and Martorella traded goals in a second quarter that saw the Bulldogs turn up the heat on Fasano, who made 10 stops in the opening half as the Seahawks held a 4-2 lead.

LoCicero scored twice early in the second half as Carey’s lead swelled to 6-2, but Hewlett (9-5) didn’t go quietly. Eighth-grader Jared Strauss set up goals by Richman and senior Michael Gray to cut the deficit in half by the end of the third quarter, and sophomore Kevin Fuchs scored 55 seconds into the fourth to make it 6-5.

“In the first half we struggled on faceoffs and ground balls,” said Passuello, “but we were better in the second half and really turned it up.”

Senior Peter Nicholls and sophomore Matt Robison sandwiched goals around one by Richman to give the Seahawks an 8-6 advantage with less than 10 minutes to go. Richman would find the net again with 2:47 left, but the body of work by Fasano proved too much for the Bulldogs to overcome.

Aiello used one word to describe the goalie’s performance: “unbelievable.”