The Farmingdale Dalers have made the top 10 in the LILJ preseason rankings. This is one of the most storied lacrosse programs in the history of Long Island. They have made the playoffs every year since 1974, and have 13 county titles, three Long Island championships, and a New York State championship. The Dalers are coached by Mike Hungerford who led them to an 11-3 record and an appearance in the Class A Championship Game. They were defeated by Syosset but have a lot of returning upperclassmen that are back hoping for more. Coach Hungerford talked about the outlook of his team heading into this season.
“We have a good mix of returners and new talent. We are good “up the middle”- Goal, F/O, LSM. We have most of the attack returning and are 8-9 deep at midfield.” -Mike Hungerford, Farmingdale Head Coach
One of their returning attackman is All-County senior Ryan Woodland (Hofstra). Last year, Woodland scored 30 goals which led the team and he finished tied for the most points with 43. He is joined by fellow senior attackmen Jack Agres and James Hickis. The midfield will include seniors Kyle Wilson and Matt Levantini, and juniors Tomaso Ramos (Stony Brook), Chris Bergersen, Matthew Cangelosi, and Trevor Gayron. Hickis scored 11 goals last season. Ramos saw a lot of action as a sophomore and has a great opportunity to really come on the scene this year. The offense will need significant contributions from each offensive player with the loss of Thomas Decker (Albany), Paolo Capucciati, and Dom Ciaccio (Stony Brook).
The face-offs will be taken by junior face-off specialist CJ Mangio (Binghamton) who won 62 out of 113 face-offs. Farmingdale primarily hung their hat on the defensive end which helped them win a lot of games last season. Many of their key defenders are back for another year. All-County defenseman Anthony Bilello (Binghamton) will lead what should be a very strong defensive unit. Bilello is a ground ball machine and led the team with 25 gb’s last year. The defense will also feature All-Conference defenseman/LSM Jordan Smikle, Matt Pantorno, Joe Bleck, and Ryan Thomas. Playing behind them is senior All-County goalie Danny Seaman (St. John’s). A great 2021 campaign saw him compile 104 saves with a 64% save percentage. Expect the Dalers to once again be one of the top defenses on Long Island, however they will be without All-American Lorenzo Ramos (Binghamton) and Christian Lembo (SUNY Maritime) who were pivotal last season.
Three young guns that could possibly see minutes on offense for the Dalers are sophomores Brendan O’Keefe, Caden Lennon, and Sal Posillico. O’Keefe and Lennon play a combination of attack and midfield while Posillico is solely a midfielder. They also have sophomore goalie Jimmy Caputo who coach Hungerford describes as one of the top sophomore goalies on the island.
This year’s schedule has a lot of notable matchups that include rivalry games, rematches from last postseason and great non league games. Here are the Marquee games for the Dalers.
West Islip @ Farmingdale (3/28)
Calhoun @ Farmingdale (4/8)
South Side @ Farmingdale (4/19)
Massapequa @ Farmingdale (4/30)
Farmingdale @ Syosset (5/6)
Port Washington @ Farmingdale (5/11)
With a history as rich as Farmingdale’s they have plenty of notable alumni that went on to do amazing things both collegiately and professionally. In total they have the third most All-Americans in the history of Nassau County. They have over 75 college All-Americans and more than 130 former Dalers became college captains. Some of their all-time alumni include John DeTommaso, Matt Danowski, Steve Panarelli, Jerry Lambe, Steve Vecchione, Rob Mulligan, Danny Brennan, Jim Teatom, Rick and Ray Giusto, Joe Rzempoluch, Brian Bacso, and Anthony Tufano. Recent alumni include Matt DeLuca and Tom Kennedy. Deluca is a goalie who played collegiately at Delaware and currently plays in the PLL for the Waterdogs Lacrosse Club. Kennedy played midfield at Bryant as well as football and currently plays in the NFL for the Detroit Lions.
