Jonathan Chau and Jerry Zhang come from behind to help Jericho boys badminton capture 7th straight Nassau team title

Jonathan Chau and Jerry Zhang don’t lose sets very often.

The back-to-back Nassau doubles champions have been on the winning end of matches since they paired up as sophomores. However, Jericho’s top duo lost the first set to begin the Nassau boys badminton team championship.

“When it does happen — and it happens sometimes — we always find a way to persevere,” Zhang said. “Coach gives us great advice and you just push through. It happened actually one time at the individual championship against Syosset in the semifinals. It was the same thing.”

Chau and Zhang, both juniors, won the next two sets, which helped Jericho (13-0) secure its seventh straight Nassau team title with a 5-2 victory over Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK (9-4) at Jericho on Friday. Jericho also continues its 48-game win streak.

“We’re really proud of the whole team,” Zhang said. “We’re really proud of ourselves for just continuing this legacy and just keep going to the top.”

Chau and Zhang won first doubles, 18-21, 21-9, 21-17, over Michael Li and Matthew Lee. Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK’s Shreeyan Binu and Jonathan Thomas won fourth doubles, 21-17, 21-16, over Ryan Cheung and Darwin Zhao to tie the match at 1.

The Jayhawks answered with four straight match victories in first and second singles and second and third doubles.

Howard Zheng, a senior, began the first singles match with the teams tied at 1, but by the end of it, he clinched Jericho’s championship without knowing it.

“I didn’t really pay attention to the score,” Zheng said. “When I got on, the score was 1-1. It was still tied. All I was thinking about was to just focus on the present moment and try to win.”

Zheng defeated Raymond Li, 21-15, 21-7, with an array of power and drop shots. Jerry Huang won second singles, 21-10, 21-19, over Kangxi Li.

For second doubles, William Wang and Caleb Kao, county runner-ups in the doubles championship, defeated Alex Ross and Joshua Lee, 15-21, 22-20, 21-14. Vincent Qiu and Anvit Vemuri won, 21-12, 21-13, over Caden Kim and Satsang Sardar in third doubles.

The Hawks’ Jayden Wu won the final match, 21-9, 21-16, over Jericho’s Aiden Chen in third singles.

While it’s a continuation of the dynasty for the Jericho program, it’s the first title for coach Anthony LaRosa. He said it’s simple with how much the players love the sport.

“They don’t mind being at practice,” LaRosa said. “They don’t mind working hard. They’re some of the hardest working athletes that I’ve been around. I’ve been around athletics my whole life — high school, middle school, college. It’s an honor to be able to coach them .. .  . Every day after practice, I have to fight to take the nets down or we’d be in the gym until midnight.”

Jericho will play the Long Island championship in the spring after Suffolk finishes its season. Zhang has his hopes high.

“That’s going to be three times (in a row),” Zhang said. “That’s going to be three times (in a row).”