Congrats to the Varsity Boys Soccer Team who clinches a playoff spot in the 2024 Nassau County Class A playoffs with a 5-0 win over Wantagh HS in the final regular season game of the season.

With the future of the season at stack the home Owls needed a victory over the visiting Warriors. The night began with the traditional celebration of the team’s seniors and recognizing their participation and contributions to the Lynbrook HS soccer program. As is tradition the Owls started the Senior class members in the game but this season had a twist to it. Two of this year’s seniors are out for the season but were given permission to begin the game on the field. With agreement from Wantagh, the game began with Lynbrook passing the ball around for a minute after which Sam Moscheni and Eddie Stradowski were subbed off the field. The game officially began at the 1 minute mark and the battle for a post season berth began.

Lynbrook played from the start with a playoff mentality as they pressured the ball constantly and applied pressure on the Wantagh defense. The Owls opened the scoring on senior night in the 21st minute when seniors Mike Werzinger and Marco Pantano combined on the first of their 2 goals of the evening. Following a Wantagh foul, Jeronimo Valencia served a ball into the box where Pantano headed it to the back post where the Wantagh keeper misplayed the ball and Werzinger was there to finish it into the goal. Two minutes later, Pantano collected the ball in the box and slotted a pass to Werzinger at the back post and this time he beat the keeper to the far post and increased the Owls lead to two. Seven minutes later, Lynbrook scored again when Fabian Safsten Suarez served in a corner kick that Steven Najera was able to settle and fire a shot to the back post of the Warriors goal and for the third quarter time in 9 minutes, the Owls scored bringing the differential to 3 where the score would remain until the half time break.

The second half saw much of the same as the Owls continued the shooting spree after outshooting Wantagh 11-0 in the first half. 12 minutes into the second half, Valencia hit a great ball at the goal that rebounded off the cross bar where Pantano crashed in and headed it into the net to make the lead 4. With the game well in hand, each of the seniors were substituted off the field with the gratitude of their teammates and coaches. The game situation also allowed for the Owls to give many of their players the chance to play minutes and prepare for their opportunities to contribute. In the 73rd minute, Lynbrook’s Jake Palay and Dillon Augustin recorded their first Varsity points when Augustin square passed a ball into the middle to Palay who took a touch to the right and put the ball into the left corner of the goal to record Lynbrook’s fifth goal of the game and their best offensive output of the season. The Owl’s Jake Prince (1 save) recorded the 5-0 shutout for the home team and his second of the season.

The victory in the final regular season game solidified the Owls spot in the post season tournament for Class A. Lynbrook now waits for the seed committee to determine who and where they will begin their post season play.

Pictures: https://lhssoccer.jalbum.net/10-16-24%20v.%20Wantagh/

UPDATE: The Lynbrook Owls have been seeded (#)9 in the Nassau County Class A postseason and will travel to (#)8 Locust Valley on Monday 10/21 at 3pm. The Owls and Falcons will meet again for the second season in a row after they played each other last season in the 2023 post season tournament.