By Jaclynkelli Kronemberg
TopLaxRecruits.com, Posted May 5/9/2014
MELVILLE, N.Y. – Eamon Campbell converted a pass from Michael Laviano with 27.9 seconds remaining to give host St. Anthony’s an 8-7 victory over visiting Chaminade Thursday and a tie in the battle for regular season Catholic high School supremacy on Long Island.
The powers split their season series and could meet again for the title in two weeks. St. Anthony’s, No. 20 in the Warrior/TopLaxRecruits Rankings, is 11-3 and 3-1 in the league. No. 15 Chaminade is 9-3.
Campbell, Laviano and Joseph Licciardi each tallied two goals and one assist and Jack Concannon posted 14 saves for St. Anthony’s.
“This feels fantastic,” said Campbell. “The play was made for Laviano to come up and hopefully get the shot, but he was covered so I peeled off and I was open.
“He fed me the ball and I made a great play. It was unbelievable. This feels great. This feels even better than the last one (winning goal he scored vs. Fairfield Prep). Concannon is an unbelievable athletic goalie. He keeps us in every game. It feels great getting the win over Chaminade at home in front of everyone.”
There was no offense until the second quarter when Chaminade jumped out to a 3-0 lead on three straight goals by Sean Cerrone. But Licciardi scored and the Friars led, 4-2, at halftime.
The Friars finally tied it, 5-5, in the fourth period on a goal by Connor Byrne, who grabbed a ground ball off the faceoff and converted with 11:49 remaining. Two minutes later Carney Mahon scored for Chaminade but St. Anthony’s answered on a Laviano goal with 9:42 left. Greg Galligan scored for St. and Carney Mahon scored to tie the game at seven.
“Our team usually comes out slow, then we pick it up and finish strong,” said Concannon. “That’s what we did today. I knew it was going to be a tough game from the start because I was seeing a lot of shots.
“This win feels great. It is a big momentum builder for us especially going into Yorktown Saturday (at home).. I knew once Eamon got that pass he was going to finish it. He did it against Fairfield Prep and I knew he was going to do it today. I believe in him.”
“Eamon has been a clutch guy for us all year,” added St. Anthony’s head coach Keith Wieczorek. “He can finish and he is a gamer. Eamon has got that grit, he is just a junior but boy he wants that ball and demands it.
“He doesn’t shrink from the pressure, he goes after it. Jack just makes stops when we need to get ourselves together. He was a big reason for our win tonight.
“Emotionally this win does help because we haven’t gotten a win against them in the regular season in couple of years. This win legitimizes that game on May 22 because we spilt the regular season.”
Chaminade has dropped three of its last four games after an 8-0 start, but looks to rebound Saturday at Farifield Prep.
“These are two great teams,” said Chaminade head coach Jack Moran. “They stuck their one at the end and we turned it over. This is a good teaching lesson for us.
“Good news for us is that we do know we play them again in two weeks.”
St. Anthony’s 8, Chaminade 7
SA: 0-2-2-4-8
C: 0-4-1-2
SA: Eamon Campbell 2G, 1A; Michael Laviano 2G, 1A; Joseph Licciardi 2G, 1A; Connor Byrne 1G; Greg Galligan 1G
C: Sean Cerrone 3G; Carney Mahon 2G; Owen Rodgers 1G; Sam Bonafede 1G; Jack Tigh 1A
Saves: Jack Concannon (SA) 14; Matt Isnardi (C) 7