Standouts from South Side's Epic New York State Championship Win

This South Side senior class has played together since they were four years old, and on Saturday they finished their story with a Hollywood movie type of state championship win. After trailing 9-5 headed into the 4th, South Side tied up the game at 11 right before the buzzer sounded. Cole DiPietro would net the overtime winner to lift South Side over Victor 12-11 for the state championship.    Another game where Michael Aiello simply took over. Aiello finished with 3 goals and 3 assists but he showed up with the game on the line. 14 seconds left and down by 1, Aiello had the ball and was matched up with Syracuse commit Cam Ryan. Aiello started up top and took Ryan behind the cage and there was only 5 seconds left. Aiello then went to his signature move where he did an inside roll and scored right before the buzzer sounded to send this game to overtime. But forget the stat sheet, Aiello made numerous key plays that didn't show up there. And one of those plays came in the overtime period, South Side won the faceoff but with the ball on the ground, it was Aiello making a play on a Victor defender to send the ball out of bounds and give the Cyclones that possession. That was a crucial play that led to South Side scoring the game winner just moments later. Throughout this game, the Skidmore commit had command the entire way. On all 3 goals he was able to use his body control and field awareness to role past his defender and score. He plays with his head up and proved to be a constant threat to feed with collecting 3 more assists on the season in this game     In his last lacrosse game ever, Jack Lozito had an impact that everyone has to talk about. I don't think South Side wins this game without this complete performance from Lozito. We'll start off at the end of the game where Lozito made a viral type of play to keep the Cyclones alive. With under a minute left, South Side was down by 1 and their goalie was out of the net. Victor had a chance for an insurance goal but Lozito leaped up high and stretched his body out to block the shot. He then was able to check sticks and the Cyclones ultimately came up with the loose ball and went down the other way to tie the game up. Throughout this game Victor had plenty of offensive possessions and they were testing Lozito. But the short stick defensive midfielder wasn't losing his matchups. Inverts and dodges up top weren't going anywhere against Lozito, as he had great lifts, picked up ground balls and had the grit inside him to leave it all out on the field and it showed.       Truly a special moment for the DiPietro family. Cole's dad Steve DiPietro is the head coach of South Side. He's seen his son and this entire 2024 class grow from little kids to where they are now. And after another amazing comeback the Cyclones had the ball with a chance to end it in overtime. As South Side's offense was settling into their first possession, it was DiPietro getting a step on his defender away from the ball. He cut hard into space and was able to haul in a quick pass and put away the game winner to give South Side their first state championship in 20 years. He finished with two goals and one assist in this game and his first goal was one of the most impressive of the day. DiPietro was coming out of the box in the clear, and he caught the ball where he would go onto swim dodge through two defenders and go right down main street for the finish to put South Side up 10-9. DiPietro has proven to be one of the quickest midfielders on Long Island.     What a special breakout season it has been for [player_tooltip player_id='30609' first='Cullen' last='Lynch']. The uncommitted junior added 3 more goals in the state championship and helped the Cyclones start this comeback. It was a quite first half for Lynch, but then he picked things up in the second half. South Side was down 8-3 under four minutes, and Lynch would score two straight goals to give the Cyclones life. Lynch made a defender nearly fall down when he spun back to his left handed and ripped a shot top shelf from around 15 yards. His second goal has already went viral on social media. Lynch's stationary behind the back bounce shot found the back of the net and fired up the South Side crowd to trim the lead to just 3. Lynch's athletic ability and knack to find the net has been on display all season. He scored his third goal on an unsettled situation in the 4th quarter. Lynch sprinted by defenders where he protected his stick and connected on a tough shot.     The Providence bound senior had another great showing at close defense. He was once again assigned with the number one matchup, and he held Cornell commit Jack Herendeen scoreless. He had a couple of assists, but that was mainly Victor's off ball offense and not Mullin getting beat. As the big defender from Rockville Centre uses his length extremely well. His feet were pretty good and he got physical when he had too. He was patient and didn't let Herendeen become a shooter. Mullin was great on the man down, and that's a role I expect him to excel in at the next level. He knocked down passes, picked up ground balls and disrupted premnitter players trying to get in a rhythm on the man advantage.    <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Honorable Mentions</h2>   Michael Melkonian (FOGO/Cornell), didn't go 90+ percent like other games but he responded to adversity in a huge way and that's what matters. After losing some draws throughout the game, Melkonian was knocked out of his groove, he found ways to win the important draws to guide South Side to a dramatic comeback for the state title. Liam Livingston (Attack), the senior plays his role perfectly for the Cyclones. He had the overtime assist, where he wasn't afraid to thread the needle early in overtime, and he tossed a dime to DiPietro for the game winner. Livingston also had 2 goals in this game, he displayed his fantastic hands. His first goal, he got lost off ball and snuck around the pipe for a catch and shoot in the 4th quarter. His second goal tied the game up at 9 with 6:55 left. It was a beautiful quick stick goal and he's one of these seniors that won't be playing college lacrosse but had a huge impact on this team and you can tell the chemistry between this Cyclones team was special.

This South Side senior class has played together since they were four years old, and on Saturday they finished their story with a Hollywood movie type of state championship win. After trailing 9-5 headed into the 4th, South Side tied up the game at 11 right before the buzzer sounded. Cole DiPietro would net the overtime winner to lift South Side over Victor 12-11 for the state championship.