Third time's a charm for South Side

In his first two years as a varsity lacrosse player, South Side’s Bryan Gerrato watched senior teammates walk off the field at Hofstra with their heads down following a Nassau Class B playoff defeat to a Lynbrook team they defeated during the regular season.

In last Monday night’s quarterfinal playoff game against the Owls, Gerrato made sure he didn’t experience the same feeling. His three goals and two assists helped the Cyclones to a convincing 12-4 victory and earned them a semifinal date with five-time defending county champion Garden City. Junior Zach Scaduto tallied four goals and two assists and junior Peter Clark had a hat trick for South Side, which also beat Lynbrook by an eight-goal margin April 5.

“When the brackets came out and we saw we could draw Lynbrook in the second round, we were excited,” Gerrato said. “I could tell we were ready tonight during warmups. Everyone was fired up. We didn’t want them to end our season again.”

The Cyclones netted six straight goals after Lynbrook junior Luke Spitzer opened the scoring 3:43 into the game. South Side All-County senior goalie Dominic Moriarty was strong in the cage with 12 saves and yielded only one goal in each quarter.

“Their goalie made some big saves one-on-one,” Owls coach Bill Leighley said. “If we sink those, it’s a big difference. Whether they would’ve been enough to get us over the top, we’ll never find out.” 

Clark, Gerrato and Scaduto scored first-quarter goals, and sophomore Hunter Rainis converted a feed from Gerrato midway through the second for a 4-1 lead. Late in the half, Scaduto and Gerrato scored in a 50-second span and after junior Teddy Mutterperl answered for the Owls it was 6-2 at intermission.

“The kids played tough and played a full four quarters,” South Side coach Steve DiPietro said. “Even up four goals at halftime, we wanted to stay aggressive in the second half and treat it as if it was 0-0. We were up last year at halftime and couldn’t finish them off.”

Spitzer, who had three goals, opening the scoring in the second half but Lynbrook’s zone defense led by senior All-County selection Connor Daly couldn’t stop the bleeding. Scaduto had two goals and an assist in the third quarter as the Cyclones pulled clear.

“We really drilled our zone offenses and emphasized ball movement,” DiPietro said. “The kids were patient and waiting for the openings we thought would become available. We were able to bury some outside shots that gave us a lot of confidence.”

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