Tommy Gentile's key saves help South Side boys lacrosse beat Wantagh
South Side goalkeeper Tommy Gentile cuts down the angle on the Wantagh shooter during a Nassau boys lacrosse game in Wantagh on Friday, April 21, 2023. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
The South Side lead slipped to two. The momentum was whipping in the wrong direction during Friday’s third quarter at Wantagh as far as the Cyclones were concerned. And then their goalie got tested in the final two minutes of the period.
Wantagh sent two long, low, laser shots flying Tommy Gentile’s way. The Boston University-bound senior came up with the biggest two of his eight saves.
“I knew that last couple of minutes would be very important,” Gentile said. “I just kept my mind right and made those two saves going into the break.”
South Side came out of the break and pulled away for a 9-3 win.
Junior attackman/midfielder Mike Aiello capped an unanswered four-goal, fourth-quarter burst with his third of the day in this Nassau non-conference lacrosse matchup. The Cyclones have won four straight and are now 7-2.
“I think we’re going to get to the county championship, most definitely,” Aiello said. “We’ve got a few hard opponents coming up. But I think we can beat anybody if we play our best ball.”
The Cyclones fell to Manhasset in the 2022 Nassau Class C final. But they have moved up to B.
“We have an experienced group, so certainly one of our goals is to get back to the championship game again,” coach Steve DiPietro said. “We know we have a lot of improvements still to do.
“This was a really good win for us against a quality team … Certainly the idea and goal is to be playing our best in May, and if we are, I’m pretty confident we’ll be in that final game.”
It was a 5-3 game heading for the fourth.
Owen West then set up Chris Vanco for a goal and closed from the right side to score one of his own. Michael Melkonian scored seven seconds later.
Aiello put an exclamation point on the run, converting from in front with 1:44 left. He had also scored twice in the final 1:29 of the first quarter off Liam Livingston feeds to give South Side a 4-1 advantage.
It expanded to 5-1 at halftime before Jake Martini and Nick Cupelli countered for a Wantagh team that’s 7-3 after making the Nassau C semis last season.
“We’re a young team,” coach James Polo said, “but there’s going to be growing pains and we’re going to try to rectify those mistakes and get better from it.”
