Finley-7 Boys’ Lax Finishes Strong
The J. Taylor Finley Middle School boys’ lacrosse team created plenty of noise en route to an 8-1-1 record this past spring. Coached by Jerome Merkerson and Joe Roy, the Falcons featured an effective mix of scoring, strong defense and skilled work by three different goalies.
Finley-7 opened the season with three consecutive victories before suffering what proved to be its only loss of the year in a tough 8-4 battle against a powerful Candlewood-7 squad.
The Falcon coaches admit they were “surprised” by that early loss and the pair spent weeks searching for a “remedy” that could be employed during a later rematch. The cure came in a newly devised defense that involved a transition from a zone to an attacking man-to-man. While the change helped the defense limit Candlewood-7 to just two goals, Finley scored just twice itself, sending the two teams home deadlocked, 2-2, in the schedule’s final game.
The Faclons’ offense was led by attackmen Stephen Cadorette (17 goals, 6 assists), Chris Fiordelisi (9g, 6a), Jack Montalbano (10g, 2a) and Craig Biernacki (5g, 1a).
Midfielders Brendan Homire (7g, 9a), Kenny McCarthy (8g, 3a), Dan McCartney (3g, 6a), Justin Loturco (7g, 1a), Nick Castelli (4g) and Steve Shivers (3g, 1a) provided exceptional defense and power offense.
Finley’s strong defensive unit was paced by the tenacious play of Quintin Germain, Tim Mattiace, Chris Youngwall, Asher King, Keegan Reilly, Grady Koepele and Trevor King. Cooper Wakhale, Justin Weigold and Kyle Mock combined to record 74 saves in goal.
Two newcomers to Huntington lacrosse also contributed to the team’s success. Andre Harris notched five goals and two assists and George Villela added two more assists.
Merkerson said that he and Roy were “quite pleased with the season and really enjoyed working with this group of fine young players.”
Falcon File: Germain and Homire earned co-MVP honors . . . Dylan Stieve (2g, 1a), Justyn Tesoriero (3g), Dylan Wheeler (3g), Chris Bergman (2g, 1a), Matt Beach (1g) and Kiandre Burrell (1g) also tallied goals for Finley.
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