East Meadow Boys Lacrosse Falls in Opening Round to Baldwin

The East Meadow Boys lacrosse team took an early exit from the Class A playoffs on Friday afternoon with a first round loss on the road to Baldwin, 17-10. 

The sixth-seeded Bruins (11-6) pulled away in the fourth quarter against the 11-seeded Jets (8-8) to move on to the quarterfinals next week at Hofstra University.  

Mike Ainbinder led Baldwin with five goals and Austin Valenti added a goal and five assists. Tyler Harper also contributed with three goals and three assists in the win. Chris Whitenack led East Meadow with three goals and Sean Hinchy had a goal and three assists in the loss.  

Baldwin came out on a roll, taking a 2-0 lead within the first minute of the game. East Meadow tied the game back up rather quickly with goals from Whitenack and Bobby Bender.  

Both Baldwin and East Meadow battled closely in a first half that featured three ties and four lead changes. The home Bruins gave themselves breathing room just before halftime with a goal from Tyler Warner to lead 7-4.  

Both offensive sides found their way to the back of the net in the third quarter, but East Meadow couldn’t pull any closer as Baldwin remained ahead by three at 11-8 after 36 minutes.  

Baldwin pushed their lead to 14-8 within the first few minutes of the fourth quarter to put the pressure on visiting East Meadow. After consecutive goals by Whitenack and Dylan Curry for the Jets, they would not be able to gain anymore ground on the Bruins.  

Baldwin added three more late goals to close out their first round win and move onto the quarterfinals against Syosset next week.  

Heroes: Mike Ainbinder led a Baldwin offense who was able to find the seems in the East Meadow defense from start to finish.  

Turning Point: With the game still in reach for East Meadow at 14-10, Baldwin turned up the pressure once again to pull away and close out the game for good.  

Quotable: “We are very young on the defensive end and couldn’t keep up with their experience,” East Meadow head coach Barney Dellaquila said. “We have something to look forward to for next year. We’ll start working in the summer and hopefully improve on some things that were a little weak this year, so we have the potential to do some good things.”  

Bottom Line: Baldwin defeated East Meadow for the second time in the month of May and has now earned a shot to play next Tuesday against Syosset. East Meadow had a rough ending to the year, losing their final three games of the season.  

Key Stat: Baldwin put in six fourth quarter goals to hold on for the win.  

Box Score: 

Goals-Assists: EM: Whitenack 3-0, Bender 2-0, Curry 2-0, Hinchy 1-3, Suchocki 1-0, Buschi 1-0. Totals: 10-3. B: Ainbinder 5-0, Harper 3-3, Warner 2-3, Abrahms 2-0, Dillon 2-0, Valenti 1-5, Mertens 1-0, Darnulc 1-0. Totals: 17-11. Goalies: EM: Wood- 10 saves; B: Dadiego- 8 saves.