Lawrence giving rivals the boot

The student-athletes in helmets and pads aren’t the only ones from Lawrence giving opponents fits this fall. The Golden Tornadoes are tearing up the soccer pitch and entered this week’s action atop Conference A-VI with a perfect 7-0 mark after opening the second half of the schedule with its fifth straight shutout victory.

Junior Daniel Reiskin and senior Carlos Quintanilla notched goals in the first and second half, respectively, and junior goalkeeper Ethan Kohan made six saves to lead Lawrence to a 2-0 win over visiting North Shore last Friday. “It was like a lot of our other games,” Golden Tornadoes coach Patrick Leary said. “We moved the ball very well and created a lot of scoring chances, and we played solid defense.

“It’s been a fun ride so far,” he added. “I thought we underachieved last year, but we brought back an experienced group and they’re all friends who hang out together and love soccer. They don’t want to leave practice.”

Since the opening day of practice, Leary said, the focus has been on defense. “We let up too many goals last year and needed to tighten the defense,” he said.

Lawrence won the Carle Place Tournament out of the gate and did so with sophomore goalkeeper Kevin Cancinos posting shutouts over Herricks and the host Frogs. However, when conference play began he was on the shelf with a broken hand that could cost him the remainder of the campaign. Enter Kohan.

“As soon as Kevin told me about his hand, I called Ethan and asked him if he ever played goalie,” Leary explained. “Ethan’s an athlete. He had no experience in goal, but was up for it. We’re giving him as many reps in practice as we can, and he’s gotten better every game.”