Saturday, April 25, 2015: Massapequa extends winning streak with OT thriller

   Leading off today: If this was a preview of the Section 8 final, sign me up for a couple of tickets right now.

   Junior Ryan Tierney scored his 30th goal of the season with 2:54 left in the first overtime to lift Massapequa, ranked second in the state in Class A, to a 7-6 victory over No. 1 Syosset in a highly anticipated boys lacrosse game Friday. It extended Massapequa's winning streak to 29 games.

   Massapequa rallied from two goals down after three quarters.

   "It was a huge character check for us," senior Griff Konen told MSG Varsity. "Obviously we haven't had many games like this. For us to be down like that, come back and win it OT like that in a big game with a lot of penalties, it was awesome."

   Konen registered a hat trick. He scored early in the fourth quarter to tie, but sophomore Matthew Benus put Syosset back ahead with 5:59 left in regulation. Massapequa's Paul Dilena responded 37 seconds later.

   Junior Lucas Cotler had two goals and two assists in a losing cause.

   The game could be a preview of the Nassau County Class A final next month at Hofstra.

   "That would be awesome," Tierney said. "I'm hoping to see them again."

   Official recovering: A longtime track official injured at the Red Raider Relays last week at North Rockland was released from Nyack Hospital and plans to officiate again, The Journal News reported.

   Walter Watson, 83, spent three days in surgical intensive care unit before surgery was deemed unnecessary. Watson suffered a concussion and broken nose in a mishap while officiating the pentathlon long jump. He was struck by Bradley Pierre when crossing the neighboring triple jump runway as the Bay Shore senior was taking a practice run.

   "I never saw him at all," Watson told the paper. "Apparently, I stepped into the runway and he didn't see me until the last minute,"

   Watson, who coached cross country at Woodlands before coaching track and cross country at Ardsley, has been an official for 17 years.

   College on hold: Chester quarterback Vinny Aloi, a first-team all-state selection in Class D last fall, is going the prep school route.

   The Times Herald-Record reported several Football Championship Subdivision schools pursued Aloi as a preferred walk-on, but he's looking for at least a partial scholarship. So instead of heading to a college in the fall, he will enroll at Jirah Prep School in Matthews, N.C.

   Aloi threw for 2,164 yards with a Section 9-record 37 touchdowns last fall to carry Chester to the NYSPHSAA final at the Carrier Dome. He was intercepted just three times.

   "I know a lot of people are doubting me because I'm from a small school," he said. "I want to prove those teams wrong."

   Taking precautions: Curtis High football player Miles Kirkland-Thomas, who died after collapsing at practice on Labor Day, will be remembered at an event on Staten Island next weekend.

   An autopsy determined Kirkland-Thomas had a heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), an abnormal thickening of the heart muscle that is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death in young athletes.

Get all the N.Y. boys lacrosse info

   On May 3, The Chad Foundation for Athletes and Artists will provide free testing for heart anomalies to the Warriors football team at the school. The screenings will include an echocardiogram, EKG, blood pressure test and glucose strip testing, The Advance reported.

   Brannigan second: Andrew Hunter of Loudoun Valley, Va., won the boys mile in 4:07.15 at the Penn Relays, with Northport's Mike Brannigan taking second in 4:09.61.

   Stepping down: Bob Stulmaker, assistant director of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association, has announced his retirement effective Aug. 31.

   Stulmaker's responsibilities include oversight of the Scholar/Athlete Team Award Program and serving as a liaison with officiating services and NYSPHSAA sports coordinators. The former president of the New York State Athletic Administrators Association arrived at the NYSPHSAA from the Saratoga Springs school district in 2007.

   Scheduling help: Some leading football programs in the Northeast have taken a step toward a scheduling arrangement to simplify the process of filling out their slates of games in the sport.

   Defending state CHSAA champion Canisius is among the schools in the line-up of heavy hitters that includes New Jersey's Bergen Catholic, Cleveland's St. Edward and Good Counsel from Olney, Md.

   At the moment, the arrangement is only assisting some of the schools in picking up a game or two as overmatched past opponents bow out. But Bergen Catholic coach Nunzio Campanile, who struggled to find a ninth game for the upcoming season, is already talking about expansion.

   "Us, Gilman, St. Joe's (Montvale, N.J.), St. Ed are all Under Armour schools so it could be a great showcase for them to get involved with,: he said. "If you add a few other teams or make it a multi-weekend event it could be profitable -- and television would probably want involved, too."

   Said Canisius coach Rich Robbins: "We would prefer to have games against teams in Cleveland or Pittsburgh and not have to go to New Jersey or Washington, D.C., but we may not have that luxury. I don't know were we would fit into that mix if we had to play teams like Don Bosco on a regular basis but if we had to go in that direction we would just ask more of our players and coaches; we would accept that challenge."