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Sports

North Boys Lacrosse Hits Speed Bump

Loses critical regular season game to Connetquot.

It's tests like these that the Sachem North boys lacrosse team will have to take and pass in succession to get where it wants to be in the postseason. After an 11-7 loss at the hands of Connetquot Thursday at Fred Fusaro Alumni Field, it was apparent that there is still room to improve for the previously unbeaten Flaming Arrows.

The Thunderbird tandem of Kieran McArdle and Matt McQuade impressed, combining for seven of the team's 11 goals, but it was Connetquot's defense that made the potent Sachem attack uncomfortable for much of the evening. North head coach Jay Mauro commended the T-Birds for a job well done, but it wasn't his team's best effort of the year.

"I think we played hard," he said. "Do I think we played well? No, I don't think we played well at all."

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After a low-scoring first half, the pace began to quicken right as the second half began. Connetquot took the opening faceoff and, within seconds, McQuade (4 goals) added to the lead with a goal from the doorstep. Sachem struck back 12 seconds later when Alex Harris took a feed from Mike Andreassi at the 11:36 mark and made it 5-3.

North (4-2, 3-1 Division I) needed to make a run but instead saw Connetquot (7-0, 5-0) lengthen its lead, notching three goals in the span of 2:28 midway through the quarter. McArdle (3 goals, 3 assists) started the spurt by firing a missile from the right side for a 6-3 edge, and after sloppiness on the Sachem end, the Pellegrino launched a perfect clear to Tim Gay on the run, and Gay darted down the center of the field and shot high past Teddy Matos (11 saves) for a four-goal lead.

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McArdle, who will play next year at St. John's, gave Connetquot its biggest advantage of the day at 8-3 when he found Steve Compitello behind the Arrow defense for a point-blank score. Sachem was never closer than four goals thereafter.

"I think Teddy had a good day," Mauro said. "When they're getting shots five yards and in, you can't blame the goalie. … We didn't do a good job closing out on skip passes and defending off the ball. We'll work on that when we go back to practice."

Mauro was quick to praise Connetquot goalie Zach Oliveri, who made 17 saves on the night. Several came early as he limited the Arrows to just two first-half goals. By contrast, they had 14 first-half tallies and 21 overall in Tuesday's win over Copiague.

"I think we outshot them, but he played very well," Mauro said of Oliveri. "He's a very good goalie. That was a big deal. That was the turning point of the game."

He had assistance from another early commitment, junior defender Mike Pellegrino. The future Johns Hopkins Bluejay drew the assignment of marking Andreassi, and he did a stand-up job, holding Andreassi without a goal and to a season-low one point. Mauro said that Andreassi "didn't shoot the ball very well," but Pellegrino gave him very little real estate with which to operate.

Connetquot, which entered the game behind only Ward Melville in the Division I standings, controlled play for the opening two quarters, but North stole some of that momentum just before the horn sounded. The Arrows trailed 4-1 with Connetquot possessing the ball with under a minute to go. Long-stick midfielder Jesse Scanna rode the T-Birds' John Zullo along the right sideline and ultimately forced him out of bounds. With possession, Sachem's Angelo Armine roared upfield and hit Cody Ciolino in front. Ciolino finished the opportunity and the deficit was cut to 4-2 with 13 seconds left in the half.

After Sachem won the ensuing draw, Ciolino very nearly had another but was knocked to the ground to Oliveri's right just before time elapsed. Connetquot made its move early in the second half and was able to keep its unbeaten run going. Three of the T-Birds' seven second-half goals were tallied by McQuade, a former Sachem East standout who transferred into Connetquot this year.

North returns to the field Monday when it welcomes Riverhead (2-3) to Fusaro Alumni Field, with Walt Whitman (2-3) due in two days later. Mauro admitted that his Arrows shouldn't be short on motivation for the coming week.

"That's definitely something," Mauro said. "It's still a young season. Anything can happen."

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