St. Anthony's Jake Bonomi (2) drives against Chaminade's Philip Arnold (13) during the first half on Wednesday, May 15, 2019. Photo Credit: Joseph D. Sullivan

By Gregg Sarra Newsdat

1. ST. ANTHONY’S BOYS LACROSSE Brennan O’Neill scored seven goals and added an assist in a 14-13 win over Chaminade as the Friars claimed the CHSAA Long Island and state titles. Jake Bonomi converted a pass from Danny Parker for the winner with 4:06 left. The Friars are ranked No. 2 in the country.

2. UNIONDALE BOYS TRACK The Knights dominated the Nassau Class AA championships last week, scoring 103 points. Giordano Williams won the 100 meters in 10.87 seconds and the 200 meters in 21.86. Asiel King won the 110-meter hurdles in 14.33 seconds and Jadan Hanson won both the long jump (22-0.75) and triple jump (45-8). Uniondale won the 4 x 100-meter relay in 43.83 seconds. 

3. MOUNT SINAI GIRLS TRACK The Mustangs won the Suffolk III championship with 150 points. Sarah Connelly, who’s shown no signs of slowing down after an impressive cross country and indoor season, won the 3,000 meters in 10:03.28 and the 1,500 in 4:40.78. Kaitlyn Chandrika won the 2,000-meter steeplechase in 7:04.51 and the 800 in 2:16.26.

4. SAYVILLE SOFTBALL The Golden Flashes continued their undefeated season with a 5-2 win over Bayport-Blue Point, led by Elizabeth Yoskowitz going 3-for-4 with two runs and Dominique Rinaldi going 2-for-3 with a triple and two RBIs Tuesday. Sayville followed with a 2-0 win over Mount Sinai Friday.

5. BRENTWOOD BOYS TRACK Brentwood scored 100 points to win the Suffolk I team championship. Julio Rodriguez won the 100 meters in 11 seconds flat, the 200 in 22.13, and was on the winning 4 x 100 meter-relay (43.28) and the winning 4 x 400 relay (3:26.82). Frank Grey won the long jump (22-2) and Elijah Logan won the high jump (6-2).

6. MEPHAM SOFTBALL The Pirates advance to their second straight Class A final after two wins over No. 5 Seaford, led by Gianna LaSpina’s two-run home run in Game 1 and Alanna Morse scoring the winning run on a wild pitch in Game 2.

7. CENTER MORICHES BASEBALL The defending state Class B champion, Long Island's only undefeated ballclub at 20-0,  swept Babylon in the Suffolk semifinals. 

8. ST. ANTHONY’S GIRLS LACROSSE The Friars won the CHSAA Class AA championship, reclaiming the title won by Sacred Heart last season. Katie DeSimone had three goals and one assist in the game and was named the CHSAA Class AA league MVP.

St. Anthony's players rush their goalie after defeating Chaminade, 14-13, in the CHSAA boys lacrosse final on Wednesday, May 15, 2019, at St. Anthony's High School. Photo Credit: Joseph D. Sullivan

By Gregg Sarra Newsday

Win one game, take credit for three titles.

St. Anthony’s will take it.

The Friars earned the Long Island, Intersectional and state CHSAA Class AAA titles with a stirring 14-13 comeback victory over Chaminade yesterday before 3,500 fans at Cy Donnelly Field in South Huntington. Jake Bonomi one timed a perfect pass from Danny Parker and scored with an over-the-back shoulder shot to break a 13-13 tie with 4:03 left in the fourth quarter for the game-winner.

“I went back door on the defense and to Danny’s credit he saw me make the cut and made a great pass,” Bonomi said. “Chaminade’s a great program and it was the first time we’d beaten them for a title in my career.”

The speed of Parker forced the Chaminade defense to collapse around him, giving Bonomi the opening in front of keeper Liam Entenmann.

“I picked up the loose ball and sprinted down the right alley and drew two defenders as Jake cut through the defense,” Parker said. “It was an awesome catch and finish.”

The goal earned St. Anthony’s (15-1), the third ranked team in the country, its second CHSAA Long Island championship in the past six years. It also extended the Friars win streak to 10 games. Chaminade (12-2), ranked second in the country, took the heartbreaking loss in stride.

“We didn’t win this game, but we certainly had our shots,” said Chaminade coach Jack Moran. “Jake Naso did a great job in the faceoffs late in the game and that was the difference. This game can be played over and over, and the result would always be different because the teams are so even.”

The game belonged to St. Anthony’s junior attack Brennan O’Neill, who scored seven goals and added an assist. O’Neill scored three times in the fourth quarter, including the game-tying goal to knot the score at 13 with 4:16 left.

“Liam is one of the best keepers in the country and I knew I had to change things up a bit with my shot,” said O’Neill, who can shoot a ball at 100 miles per hour. “So, I went low on the game-tying shot. I think our tough schedule prepared us for this game and this situation. Our guys were ready for the pressure and came up big.”

Entenmann, who made 15 saves, closed the gap between his body and the pipe and gave O’Neill very little room to score. Somehow, he found the only opening to the net.

“There’s a reason why O’Neill is the number one recruit in his class,” Moran said. “He does everything well from rides, to ground balls and shooting. And he’s an unselfish player.”

Chaminade opened a 3-0 lead only to see St. Anthony’s score three in a row and tie it. And the beat went on all night as neither team led by more than three in the exciting back and forth affair.

“We played a rigorous national schedule and beat quality teams from eight different states,” said St. Anthony’s coach Keith Wieczorek. “It prepared us for this title game. And Chaminade was the best team we’ve played all year. This one feels really good.”

St. Anthony's Jake Bonomi celebrates after scoring in the second quarter. Host St. Anthony's defeated Delbarton (NJ), 13-4, on Saturday.   Photo Credit: Bob Sorensen

Jake Bonomi worked his way down the field. The St. Anthony’s senior attackman raced against the clock as time ticked down in the third quarter. With 2.3 seconds left Bonomi ripped a righthanded rocket from about 17 yards just over the shoulder of Delbarton keeper Michael Ricciardelli for his fourth goal of the game.

The late score punctuated a four-goal quarter and capped an 8-1 run as St. Anthony’s pulled away from Delbarton (NJ) in a 13-4 win in a non-league boys lacrosse game in South Huntington. The showdown of two of the countries top-ranked lacrosse teams never lived up to the hype.

St. Anthony’s (2-0), ranked seventh, was just too good for the 13th ranked Green Wave (1-1).

“We moved the ball really well,” Bonomi said. “The goal just before the end of the third quarter was about great teamwork. We got the ball up field quickly. I knew time was running out, so I let it rip.”

Bonomi, along with junior Brennan O'Neill, who had three goals and an assist, and junior faceoff specialist Jake Naso, were unstoppable in a game the Friars never trailed.      

“We have something special out here this year,” O'Neill said. “We have an amazing faceoff guy in [Jake] Naso and a lot of talent everywhere. I came to play here because it’s a great schedule.”

St. Anthony’s plays an ultra-competitive schedule, highlighted by nine of the top 20 ranked teams, country wide by USA Lacrosse. The Friars deep bench will enable them to compete with any school.

O’Neill, who peppered Ricciardelli throughout the first quarter, was held scoreless, as the keeper made at least two-point blank saves. The second quarter would belong to O’Neill and the Friars as his back-to-back goals in the fourth minute extended a one-goal lead to 5-2.

On the first goal, O’Neill shook two defenders and bounced a lefthanded shot past Ricciardelli with 9:47 left and 51 seconds later added another goal when he grounded a low shot through the keeper’s legs to make it 5-2. The goals ended a back-and-forth affair where the teams traded goals through the first quarter.

“He stood tall and he’s a big goalie who made some nice stops,” O’Neill, said. “I’d never played against him before, so I had to figure him out. He moved well and was very good up top. We started to confuse him, so he didn’t know where the shots were coming from.”

Bonomi made it 6-2 when he took a perfect feed from O’Neill and running right across the crease sent a shot over his left shoulder behind the keeper.

“I would have given him grief if he didn’t finish that play,” O’Neill said. “It was a beauty.”

“Perfect set up,” Bonomi said. “We are an unselfish team and that’s a key to our success.”

All-Long Island quarterback Greg Campisi is a key component of the infrastructure of that teamwork. He worked the midfield and was responsible for numerous takeaways and setting the Friars offense in motion.

“We’re pleased with our overall game play,” said St. Anthony’s coach Keith Wieczorek. “We really put it together.”

St. Anthony's goalie Alex Pazienza makes a save off the stick of Chaminade's Roy Meyer at Mitchell Athletic Complex in on May 16, 2018. Photo Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy

By Jordan Lauterbach of Newsday

Chaminade vs. St. Anthony’s. It's a rivalry that is so ingrained in the fabric of boys lacrosse on Long Island that some of the players involved in the current iteration have distinct memories of watching the drama unfold from the stands.

“I’ve been going to Chaminade/St. Anthony’s championship games since, probably, fifth grade,” Chaminade attackman Thomas Rogan said. “So, to me, it’s the best rivalry in the entire country. There’s nothing better than playing against St. Anthony’s. It’s the coolest game.”

In addition to their regular-season matchup on April 10, the two bluebloods are on a crash course for a state title clash. As the only teams in the CHSAA’s ‘AAA’ classification, the postseason matchup for all the marbles is pre-ordained. But, despite the odd circumstance, the likelihood is that no one would have stopped either team on their path to the final.

St. Anthony’s is ranked seventh in the country in the latest Under Armour/Inside Lacrosse national power rankings. Chaminade, the defending CHSAA Class AA state champion, is ninth.

“It’s a historic rivalry that brings the best out of both programs,” St. Anthony’s coach Keith Wieczorek said. “I think we’re almost cookie-cutter images of each other . . . Both programs are very rich in tradition and both send kids to great schools to compete.”

This season is no different. St. Anthony’s attackman Jake Bonomi, a fast, versatile senior, is committed to Michigan. His teammate, attacker Brennan O’Neil, is committed to Duke and is considered the best junior in the country, Wieczorek said.

This season, O’Neil said he wants to hit the gym more, looking to add strength to his already well-established quickness and agility.

“I want to get bigger, faster, stronger,” O’Neil said. “ . . . I think the better athlete you are, the more it helps.”

St. Anthony’s plays a punishing schedule, one that will surely solidify their status as one of the country’s top teams. They face national powers such as Maryland’s McDonogh, New Jersey’s Delbarton, and Connecticut’s Darien (April 28 on ESPNU).

As Bonomi put it, ‘there are no days off.’

“[Wieczorek] always says, we’re going to get the best shot from every team,” O’Neil said. “Every team has us circled on our calendar and they’re making it known that this is the game of the year for them. We know that, every time we go on the field, it has to be our best game possible.”

And, at the end of St. Anthony’s tour of the best the country has to offer, Chaminade will be waiting.

The Flyers figure to reload after losing key pieces from the state championship team but, as the national rankings prove, they won’t fall far. Notre Dame-commit Liam Entenmann will take over the starting role in goal. He played last season, but didn’t start. Instead, Entenmann learned from Andrew Bonafede, who is now at Duke.

“To be a goaltender at the level I’m playing at, you have to be a good ball-stopper and a good clearer,” Entenmann said. “Pretty much every goalie that I’m going to be playing against this year are those two things. I feel where I separate myself from a bunch of other people is my ability to communicate with the defenseman and the defensive middies. I feel like I do a pretty good job of that.”

Rogan, who is committed to Dartmouth, is the leader of the Flyers offense and Reilly Gray, also Notre Dame-bound, is a strong shooter, feeder, and defender.

“I would like to see myself get everyone involved and make everyone around me a better player,” Rogan said. “I want to facilitate and help everyone around me get better. Hopefully, that’s what the recipe is for a championship.”

Few things are certain on the road to a championship, especially in March. But, this one is – the season will end in iconic fashion – with another edition of Chaminade/St. Anthony’s.