Thursday, October 1, 2026
The bus ride from Massapequa to Hofstra’s Shuart Stadium wasn’t a long one, but it was meaningful.
The Massapequa boys’ lacrosse team watched the first quarter of their overtime loss to Syosset back on May 15, viewing all the mistakes made in a game coach Kevin Catalano called the “worst of the season.”
“The main thing that we were preaching in the pregame huddle was that we had to come out fast,” he said. “We had to throw the first punch and just continue to battle the rest of the night, and they really showed up.”
Second-seeded Massapequa was shot out of a cannon, racing out to a nine-goal halftime lead en route to a 19-5 win over top-seeded Syosset in the Nassau Class A championship game Tuesday night.
The Chiefs cruised to a second straight county title and the 13th in the program’s history.
From the worst game to the best game of the season.
“I think from top to bottom the guys really obviously left it all out there on the field and executed the game plan perfectly,” Catalano said. “We made a couple of adjustments going into it after the first one, and they really did a good job top to bottom.”
One of those adjustments was defensively, where sophomore Casey Gilchrist was moved back to long-stick midfield to cause havoc in the middle of the field and on the faceoff wings, while senior Justin Farrell was given the responsibility to defend Brody Waxer.
In a meeting of future Michigan teammates, Farrell held Waxer scoreless. Waxer had seven goals in the first meeting, a 13-12 overtime victory for Syosset.
“I think Justin’s an absolute beast,” junior attackman Nolan Wieczorek said. “He’s one of my best friends. He’s one of the nicest kids on the team, but he’s definitely a mean kid on the field.”
With junior Ryan Chabus winning 18 of 26 faceoffs, Massapequa’s high-octane, Division I attack hummed. Junior Rocco Spallina (Penn) had six goals and one assist, UMass commit Tyler Byrnes had five goals and one assist, and Wieczorek (Richmond) had three goals and five assists.
“This is our third year altogether on the attack line, so we’re definitely just honing in on that chemistry that we have together and just using it to our advantage, communicating, just carrying each other, leadership from Tyler, from Rocco, just the whole team is coming together, and it’s looking nice,” Wieczorek said.
After Gio Accardo gave Syosset (16-3) an early lead, Massapequa went on a five-goal spurt, capped by a man-up goal by Byrnes, to take a 5-1 lead. The Chiefs closed out the second quarter on a 6-0 run and took a commanding 11-2 lead into halftime on Spallina’s fifth goal of the first half.
Byrnes’ fifth goal, off an assist from younger brother Jake, gave Massapequa a 12-goal lead, resulting in a running clock in the fourth quarter.
Massapequa next takes on Sachem North in the Long Island Class A championship game Saturday at 5:30 p.m at Stony Brook University. A year ago, the Chiefs fell in a heartbreaker to Half Hollow Hills.
“We made it there last year, and we’re just trying to make it further every single year and end with our eventual goal, which is the state championship,” Wieczorek said.
