Statement game for South Side

Whether he’s on the soccer field, basketball court or wielding a lacrosse stick, South Side’s Greg Cove prides himself on defense.

Last Friday brought perhaps the stiffest challenge of Cove’s senior year in any sport and he rose to the occasion to help the Cyclones pull off a 10-6 upset of host Lynbrook in a Conference B-II game. He held Owls standout Tom DeNapoli to one goal and one assist, and South Side junior goalie Dominic Moriarty (14 saves) was beaten just once over the last three quarters.

“It’s a good win,” Cove said. “We had a slow start, but we know what we can do. We’ve got a bunch of weapons and a solid defense, and the coaches put a lot of faith in us.”

Pat Finnerty (three goals, two assists), Alex Doerflein (three goals) did most of the damage offensively for the Cyclones, who won their fifth straight to improve to 5-5 overall and 4-0 in conference play. Lynbrook (7-3, 4-1) got two goals apiece from Kevin Alonge and Ryan Clark.

“I was concerned after they jumped out 3-0, but we settled down after a timeout and Doerflein pumped some life into us with that first goal,” South Side coach Steve DiPietro said. “We hustled all over the place and did a tremendous job on ground balls and face-offs. A lot of guys stepped up. It was a total team effort.”

The defensive plan, according to DiPietro, was simple but not easy to accomplish. “We didn’t want to let DeNapoli beat us,” he said.

Cove, Dan Alles, Mike Hayes and Mike Firestone were the workhorses on defense, and Moriarty turned aside 10 of the last 11 shots he faced. Lynbrook goalies Andrew Siconolfi (seven) and Brandon Cheney combined for 13 saves.

“I don’t think it was a matter of us getting too fired up early and having nothing left in the tank,” Owls coach Bill Leighley said. “They played great defense after the first quarter and shut us down. We’ve been pretty effective dodging people and getting to the cage, but they’ve got athletes and matched up well against us.”

Lynbrook led 4-1 just 6:14 into the game, with Alonge scoring twice, and took a 5-3 lead into the second quarter before the Cyclones battened down the hatches. South Side scored four straight goals—by Pat Kelly, Terence White, Doerflein and Finnerty—and became the first team this spring to hold the Owls scoreless in consecutive quarters and led 7-5 entering the fourth.

“I thought we had momentum at halftime even though we were down,” Cove said. “We played a great second half and hopefully we’ll keep it up into the playoffs.”

Clark broke a scoreless drought that lasted 28:41 to get the Owls within 7-6 with 10 minutes remaining, but Gavin Ahern, Doerflein and Connor Waxon scored in a four-minute span to put the finishing touches on South Side’s 22nd straight conference win dating back to 2008.

“We’ve played well at times but we’re still trying to find our identity,” Leighley said. “We have some work to do if we want to make noise in the playoffs.”