Friday, June 13, 2025
The Wantagh boys’ lacrosse team is making the spectacular look routine.
For a second consecutive championship game, the Warriors rallied from a significant deficit to earn a dramatic win, coming back from five goals down to defeat Kings Park in the Long Island Class C final at Hofstra’s Shuart Stadium June 4.
Wantagh, which erased a four-goal deficit in an 11-10 overtime win over South Side in the county final May 31 at Hofstra, advances to meet Somers in the NYSPHSAA Class C regional final on Saturday.
“They are battle-tested and they are ready to respond to all adversity at all times,” Wantagh coach James Polo said. “They just rally the troops and it’s a great feeling to see them succeed when they’re down and never quit and play to the last whistle. They have faith in each other. It’s one of those really special things with this group.”
Kings Park (16-3) raced out to a 7-3 first-quarter lead when Jack Salva’s extra-man goal capped a 4-0 run in 36 seconds.
The Kingsmen’s lead ballooned to 10-5 when Salva wrapped around the cage for his fourth goal with 8:35 left in the second quarter.
The Warriors (15-4) responded by scoring the final four goals of the first half — the first two from Luke Martini in 22 seconds and the final two by Carter Loughman to cut the deficit to 10-9 at the halftime break.
The two teams went punch for punch in the third quarter and Kings Park went into the final frame with a two-goal lead thanks to a goal by Luke Griffin from a Salva skip pass.
Aidan Barbosa gave the Kingsmen a 14-12 lead with 9:51 left, but then the Warriors took over.
First, Luke Martini pulled Wantagh back a goal with 7:58 left, and then Loughman tied the score at 14 with 6:07 remaining with his fourth goal.
Devin Paccione dodged to the cage and scored his third goal to give Wantagh its first lead of the game at 15-14 with 2:58 left.
The Villanova-bound junior extended that lead to 16-14 off a feed from Joe Nicholson with 1:27 left.
“It felt great,” Paccione said. “The team trusted me to make a play when we needed one, and I felt like when I had the ball and everyone was telling me to go to the net, I trusted my teammates, and as much as they put their trust in me, I just made a play.”
Salva made it a one-goal game with his sixth goal with 56.6 seconds remaining in regulation.
A Barbosa ground ball ensured the Kingsmen would have possession with 30 seconds left. The possible equalizer by Salva clanged off the crossbar, and then Luke Perfetti blocked another Salva salvo with 11 seconds left to secure Wantagh’s first Long Island championship since 2001.
“As awesome as it feels to win both of those, no one’s really satisfied yet,” Paccione said. “We’re going to keep going, we’re going to keep fighting until we get to the ultimate goal, which is a state championship.”
