Charlie Koester leads Garden City to Long Island Class B championship
Garden City celebrates after defeating East Islip in the Long Island Class B boys lacrosse championship on Wednesday at East Islip. Credit: Dawn McCormick
A year ago, Garden City boys lacrosse sat at home in June following its county semifinal loss. It broke up a three-year run of Garden City titles in the Class B Long Island championship game.
On Wednesday, Garden City’s players turned back the clock with the most important fourth-quarter play of their lives. And suddenly, Garden City was back on top.
Charlie Koester scored four first-half goals before Garden City broke a tie at 11 with four unanswered fourth-quarter goals by Anthony Asaro, James DeBuschere, Ben Smith and Chase Kraus to beat East Islip, 15-11, in the Class B Long Island championship game at East Islip Middle School.
Garden City (18-2) will travel to Yorktown High School Saturday to face Section I’s Horace Greeley in a state quarterfinal on June 7, at 5 p.m.
Koester accounted for three of Garden City’s five second-quarter goals, with freshman Smith’s unbelievable behind-the-back score as the shot clock expired leading the Trojans to take a 9-6 lead into halftime. East Islip rallied through Jack Kalinowski (four goals) and Brayden Black (one goal, two assists) in the third quarter to tie the game at 11 entering the final 12 minutes.
"Twelve more minutes as a group," Cascadden said of the team message.
"We're used to it," Koester added. "In practice we battle with each other."
Sophomore Asaro scored his third and most important goal of the game just 2:05 minutes into the fourth quarter. Garden City wouldn’t concede or lose the lead from there.
Both Blake and Luke Cascadden stood out from start to finish, with the former adding a goal and assist in transition while being disruptive on defense alongside Owen Wuchte and Luke LeSueur. Luke Cascadden won 12 of 16 faceoffs in the first half and finished 22 of 29 while battling through a noticeable cut on his right arm following his sixth faceoff win.
"Shoutout to our trainer, Anthony," Luke Cascadden said. "He tapes us up quick, efficiently and he's just the best."
East Islip (15-4) will graduate 20 seniors, with program mainstays like Ryan Parker (two goals, one assist) and Drew Walendowski (10 saves) leaving as back-to-back county champions. Young attackmen like Sean Hannigan and Connor McIntee provide promising future outlooks for the reigning Suffolk Class B champions.
The Trojans now march on, as complete from end-to-end as any team on Long Island.
"We're going to outwork you, period," Luke Cascadden said.
Michael Sicoli covers high school sports for Newsday. He graduated from Quinnipiac in 2022 and left with a master’s degree in sports journalism in 2023.
