Long Beach dealt first loss

Defending state Class B champion Garden City got the best of Long Beach on the lacrosse field again, this time knocking the Marines from the ranks of the unbeaten on Tuesday afternoon, 8-5, in a Conference B-II showdown behind Cody George’s hat trick and Justin Guterding’s four assists.

Long Beach, winners of 11 in a row out of the gate this spring including hard-fought victories over Class A contenders Massapequa and Farmingdale last week, were within one of the Trojans early in the fourth quarter but were held scoreless over the final 11:39. George and Lucas Clay provided the insurance for Garden City, which kept Marines senior goaltender Sam Weiss (16 saves) busy throughout.

“We were in it the whole way, but I thought we made too many mistakes in the first half,” Long Beach coach Jim Kaspar said. “Maybe instead of being down a goal we would’ve been up one or two. We had some penalties and turnovers you can’t make against Garden City. 

“They were a little better than us today, and they’ve got more kids, but we can play with them,” he added.

The Marines’ roster goes only 20-deep and is missing a key component — senior midfielder Billy Kane. He’s expected to undergo surgery soon to repair a torn ACL suffered in early April. At Garden City, senior attack James Forkin, who has been slowed by a sore hamstring, wore Kane’s No. 4 jersey and scored three goals in the opening quarter to up his total on the season to 41.

“I’m not sure if J.T. forgot his own jersey or not, but it was a nice gesture,” Kaspar said. “He was moving a little better today than he has in a while. We’ve been holding him out of practice so he can be as healthy as possible for games. I’m not sure he’s going to play the next one.”

Forkin drew as many as three defenders at times but still managed to fight through traffic and score. He scored twice in a span of 1:38 early in the first quarter to give the Marines their only lead of the game at 2-1. The Trojans’ first and second goals came on man-up situations, and their fourth came with just five seconds to go in the quarter.

If not for Weiss, there’s no telling what Long Beach’s deficit at halftime would’ve been. Working in front of a defense led by Jake Brown, Joe Candon and Connor Kennedy, he made numerous difficult saves on high-powered shots, including three on Guterding. “Sam played great,” Kaspar said. “He’s come up big for us all year.”

Sophomore Chris Parler scored twice in the second half for the Marines, who hadn’t lost since last year’s Nassau Class B playoff semifinal against Garden City. They were coming off a 7-5 win over Farmingdale on April 26 that saw junior Liam Rafferty score the winner with 6:41 left. Three days earlier, sophomore Matt Varian’s goal in overtime beat Massapequa, 13-12.

“We have another big game next week against Wantagh,” Kaspar said of next Tuesday’s 7 p.m. home game at Long Beach Middle School.