By Jesse Serwer
Farmingdale¹s Steve Maier led Molloy¹s attack with four goals and five assists, and Baldwin¹s Mike Zabielski added two goals and two assists as the 12-4 Lions set a team record for wins. The victory also marked the first ECAC championship for any men¹s team in Molloy history. The team finished the season ranked seventh in the NCAA Division II lacrosse standings, the highest end-of-season ranking in the program¹s eight years.
Just days earlier, on May 12, coaches in the New York Collegiate Athletic Conference named Molloy Head Coach Joe Catalanotti the conference¹s coach of the year. Three Lions ‹ Maier, Zabielski and Massapequa¹s Joe Labella ‹ were named to the All-NYCAC first team, and Hicksville¹s Dave Daly was named to the second team. Catalanotti is also up for Division II coach of the year.
Even before his offensive outburst in Saturday¹s game, Maier had accumulated the highest single-season point and assist totals in Molloy lacrosse history, and he finished with 98 points and 52 assists. His 46 goals were just short of Dean Demott¹s record of 50, set in 1999.
The Lions jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead over Dowling¹s Golden Lions in the first quarter, and held on to the lead throughout. The Golden Lions closed the gap to two with a goal by Ryan Campbell with 3:31 to play in the third, but that was the closest they would ever get. Despite a spate of last-minute penalties, Molloy added three insurance goals to close out the game.
³We were really laid back after those first few goals,² Maier said. ³[Dowling] beat us early on in the season, but it¹s hard to beat a good team twice, and we¹re a good team. After the first quarter, I knew we could beat them.²
The victory was an appropriate end to a season that began without a practice field, as inclement weather stalled the installation of the Dean Skelos Athletic Complex¹s new artificial surface. But the Lions¹ season quickly took an upward swing that included an eight-game winning streak.
³The transition from [practicing on] tennis courts to the fields hurt us,² Catalanotti said. ³We opened up the season with a loss to Wheeling Jesuit, and we lost because we had no facility to practice on. Now that we have this field, we¹ll be out practicing in January.²
Molloy Athletic Director Harry Herman said the field, the result of a partnership between the college and the village of Rockville Centre, is the cornerstone of Molloy¹s ambitious plans for its lacrosse program. While the men¹s team continues to recruit top players and post improving records, a women¹s team is set to begin play in 2006.
³It¹s only going to get better now that we have this field,² Herman said. ³People are starting to see that there is a future and a plan, and incoming students will know that winning is not a one-shot deal.²
Herman praised Molloy¹s players for their competitiveness in a league where the other teams¹ players live on-campus. ³[Our players] are all commuters,² he said. ³Each one of them has to go somewhere else, while all these other schools [in their division] have dorms.²
Comments about this story? JSerwer@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 221
