Owen Duffy, Michael Leo lead St. Anthony's boys lacrosse past Chaminade
St Anthony's Owen Duffy (32) scores the go ahead goal in the fourth quarter during the CHSAA boys lacrosse game between St. Anthony's and Chaminade on Tuesday May 3, 2022. Credit: Bob Sorensen
When you play a national schedule like the St. Anthony’s boys lacrosse team every game is a big one.
But whenever St. Anthony’s steps on the field with longtime rival Chaminade the stakes rise even more. And in the biggest of moments in the biggest games the Friars know they can count on Owen Duffy and Michael Leo.
Duffy had four goals and two assists, two of them in the fourth quarter, including the winner, and Leo had a goal and three assists as St. Anthony’s hung on for a 13-12 win over the Flyers at home Tuesday afternoon.
“We know our leaders will lead,” St. Anthony’s coach Keith Wieczorek said, “and those two are our captains.”
Duffy opened the scoring just over a minute into the game but Chaminade scored the next four, capped by a Charles Balsamo goal assisted by Jack Flaherty. Flaherty finished with two goals and two assists and Balsamo had two goals and an assist.
St. Anthony’s (9-1) entered the game off a 10-day layoff and their only loss of the season, which came to undefeated St. John’s (DC), which is No. 1 in the nation, according to US Lacrosse, on April 22.
“You can just look at those first six minutes we played, it was hard coming off that layoff,” Wieczorek said. “We had some issues because you can’t duplicate that speed and intensity that Chaminade played with.”
After a slow and methodical second quarter that saw the Flyers (9-4) go into halftime up 6-4, both teams came out fast in the third.
“We knew we had to keep our energy up and just keep playing,” Leo said.
Leo opened the scoring in the third and the Friars poured in five more in the frame, capped off by back-to-back goals by Jack Speidell.
“Our offense is so good because we have so many different goal scorers,” Leo said. “We knew this was going to be a [tough game] and we were ready.”
Neither team led by more than two goals in the second half and in the end it was the Duffy and Leo connection that helped put the Friars in front for good.
“Leo and I do a great job of playing together,” Duffy said, “but I think today we all did a really good job of looking for each other and it clicked.”
After winning the first matchup earlier this month 19-10, the Friars will meet Chaminade for a final time this season on May 17 at Hofstra for the CHSAA AAA title.
“These regular season games are nice to win,” Duffy said. “But the next one is the one that really matters and we need to make sure we win that one.”
Gene Morris joined Newsday's sports department in September 2012 and covers high school sports. He earned a journalism degree from Stony Brook University in 2010.
