By:Tony Bellissimo
Senior Martin Garcia and sophomore Bryant Amitrano also scored, and junior goaltender Bryan Grupp turned aside 12 of the Rams' 16 shots. With the win, Valley Stream improved to 5-7 in conference play and 6-8 overall.
"We've played some exciting, competitive games," Coach Doug DeRosa said. "The 12-minute quarters are tough to sustain against the better teams because we're not as deep as them, but we've managed to win our share. There's only one game we really would have liked to get that we didn't, and that was against Lawrence."
Two days before Valley Stream beat West Hempstead, it blew a three-goal halftime lead in a 9-8 setback to playoff-hopeful Lawrence. Amitrano, Garcia and sophomore midfielder Phil Pepe had two goals apiece, but it wasn't enough to overcome the efforts of Golden Tornadoes Louie Acosta (four goals, three assists) and Frank Argento, who's third goal proved to be the game-winner.
"We gave them a run for their money," DeRosa said. "Grupp played a strong game and if not for the third quarter we would've pulled the upset."
Lawrence outscored Valley Stream by a 5-1 margin in the third, and the teams traded goals in the fourth. Gagstetter and junior attack Alex Boccio also scored for DeRosa's troops, who close out the campaign on Thursday at Herricks.The most satisfying of the team's six wins came against Elmont on April 23. Trailing by three after the first quarter and 4-0 early in the second, Valley Stream put together its finest half of the year and recorded a come-from-behind 7-4 victory. It outscored the Spartans by a 6-0 margin over the final 24
minutes.
"They had all the momentum early," DeRosa said. "We changed our offensive set a little by isolating Amitrano. He ended up with four goals, and our defense and goalie did a great job in the second half to keep Elmont off the scoreboard."
Boccio added a pair of scores and Grupp had 15 saves-his average number of stops on the year. As usual, senior Sean Riley led the defense.
The teams met the following afternoon as well, and even though Elmont cracked Valley Stream's defense for eight goals it wasn't enough. Amitrano, Pepe and Gagstetter all had hat tricks to spark an 11-8 victory. Boccio and junior Nick Macchio also scored, and Pepe had a big day on face-offs.
"We've battled in every game," DeRosa said.
