Wantagh Boys Lacrosse Wins Backyard Battle Over Seaford

Neighborhood bragging rights were on the line Monday night when the Wantagh and Seaford boys lacrosse teams squared off in a non-league showdown of two squads expected to compete for their respective conference titles. The Warriors can claim area supremacy for at least another year after jumping out to an 8-0 lead in route to a 17-8 win at over their neighbors to the east.    

“These guys play in all the youth leagues together, the towns touch each other and it is always a nice little rivalry,” said Wantagh head coach Gary Reh after his team won the annual battle with Seaford in dominating fashion.

Seaford (5-1) had gone into the game unbeaten after posting victories over Calhoun, Mepham, Baldwin, Kellenberg and this past Friday North Shore. Wantagh (5-2) has now won three in a row since a 12-7 loss to Conference I power Massapequa on March 30.

Making this year’s Wantagh-Seaford boys lacrosse battle extra special was a pregame ceremony honoring a man that coached many of the players on both teams, Mike Glazer who died two and a half years ago. Glazer was a longtime coach with the boys lacrosse program and in a fitting moment his son Kevin scored a goal for the Vikings with 3:26 left in the third quarter to cut the Warrior’s lead to 14-6.

Wantagh built its large early lead on the strength of three straight first quarter goals by Colgate-bound senior Ryan Walsh, including two on transition off Seaford turnovers at midfield. Junior midfielder Brian Von Bargen also exploded on offense for the Warriors scoring three first half goals. Senior attackman John Ingrilli finished the game with a career-high 10 points on five goals and five assists.

“We came out really intense,” said Coach Reh

“Wantagh outplayed us, outhustled us, outcoached us and deserved the victory,” said Seaford head coach Mike Corcoran.

Pacing Seaford’s offense was attackman Anthony Marino who scored five of the Vikings’ eight goals. Seaford had plenty of quality scoring chances but struggled to fire the ball past Harvard-bound Wantagh goalie Jake Gambitsky, who recorded eight saves. Seaford goalie Andrew Sappia did his best to keep Seaford in the game with seven stops.

Wantagh returns to action on Wednesday for another non-league game at Roslyn starting at 4:30 p.m. Seaford will try and group from the loss to its neighborhood rival on Friday evening at home against Friends Academy with faceoff scheduled for 7 p.m.