The Manhasset-Garden City lacrosse rivalry is one of the best in the nation.
These two schools, separated by 5.8 miles, are titans of the sport on the high school level, premier programs that routinely turn out Division I signees by the bushel. They have met 142 previous times and are believed to have the longest-running high school lacrosse rivalry in America.
Normally, you could separate the difference between the teams with a hairpin. Some years, Manhasset is a tiny bit better, like last year, when it won a 6-5 thriller in the Class B semifinals; other years, the Trojans are a mite ahead.
In 2025, though, the gap was wider than usual.
Using a combination of quick passing and powerful shots from all over the field, Garden City got off to a dominant start Saturday in the Class B finals at Hofstra’s Shuart Stadium, and then ran away with the title in the second half, grabbing a 13-5 win.
The victory avenged the Set win last year, and advanced Garden City (17-2) to the Long Island Championship game against East Islip at East Islip Middle School on June 4.
Combined with Garden City’s 10-5 win in the Woodstick Classic earlier this season, the Trojans showed they were the best Class B team this spring.
“I don’t think we were very good in any aspect today,” said Manhasset head coach Keith Cromwell. “They were a lot better than us, all the way through.”
Manhasset (13-6) struggled offensively at times this season, and Saturday couldn’t get anything going for a while. It’s almost unheard of for Set to go scoreless in a game until the second quarter, but that’s what happened Saturday, as Garden City had a 3-0 lead at the end of the first, and led 4-0 before Manhasset’s Dylan Scheer got his team on the board.
Manhasset’s offensive problems stemmed from some inaccurate shooting, dropped passes, but mostly the Trojans’ controlling the ball much of the half.
Down 4-0 in the second period, and in danger of being blown out, Manhasset started to respond. Scheer blasted a low shot from 30 feet out into the net to cut the deficit to 4-1, then senior Danny Kolin (headed to the Naval Academy) had a beautiful pass to a cutting Conor Sheerin who scored to cut it to 4-2 with 3:11 left.
Then Set’s Philip Palumbo trickled a low stick-side shot past Garden City goalie Jake Schlipf to send Manhasset into the locker room with some momentum, trailing only 5-3.
“That goal was huge, and we thought if we could get the next one to start the third, it’s a whole new ballgame,” Cromwell said. “And then they did a better job of winning their matchups.”
But Garden City reasserted control in the third, led by Anthony Asaro (four goals) and Ben Smith (three goals).
The Trojans scored four goals in 3:26 to eliminate any doubt about the outcome and cruise to the win.
Matthew D’Arienzo and Daniel O’Connor also scored for Manhasset, while Kolin, a rare four-year varsity player at Manhasset, finished his terrific career by dishing out two assists.
“This is a phenomenal place to coach, and our kids work their tails off,” Cromwell said. “We had 18 seniors, and it’s never fun to come up short in a county championship game.”
