Brothers Face Off At America East Lax Championship

A Hauppauge sibling rivalry stole the spotlight at the America East Men’s Lacrosse championship on May 7, as brothers Ryan and Tom Compitello played key roles in the

Ryan scored the game-winning goal for Hartford with less than a second remaining, crushing his brother’s championship dreams and ending Tom’s college career.

"Obviously it’s a sticky situation,” Tom said, about his brother’s winning goal. “Am I happy that we lost? Not even close. Let’s put it this way, I wanted to win today. His loss would have meant nothing. I would have felt better if we would have won.”

Tom, a Stony Brook senior, scored with 7 minutes 27 seconds remaining in Saturday’s game, putting the Seawolves head of Hartford, 10-9. Stony Brook was favored heading into the match, having not lost a conference game in two years.

But the Hawks were not ready to give up. After Hartford tied the score at 10, the game seemed destined for overtime when Ryan, Tom’s younger brother and 2008 Hauppauge graduate, scored the game-winning goal.

Ryan drove to the goal on a delayed penalty, absorbing a crushing hit as he unleashed a shot that went over the shoulder of Stony Brook’s goaltender and into the net with one second remaining.

As Ryan and his teammates rejoiced, Tom dejectedly stood on the other side of the field realizing his career at Stony Brook was over. After the buzzer sounded, the brothers embraced.

“Great job today,” Tom said, according to Ryan.

The loss ends Tom’s college career for Stony Brook. He leaves as the No. 7 all-time leading scorer with 145 points.

“Being here for five years is a huge chunk of our lives,” Tom said. “Growing with these guys, knowing that it’s kind of coming to an end is definitely something that’s hard to swallow.”

Tom and Ryan grew up playing lacrosse together in Hauppauge. When Tom was in third grade, he said Ryan would tag along to the practices run by their father, Thomas. Both played for Hauppauge High School’s varsity lacrosse team.

Hauppauge varsity coach Jerry Goodfellow said Saturday’s game “was a proud moment for the Hauppauge school district and the lacrosse program” speaking highly of the Compitello family’s contributions to Hauppauge’s program both on and off the field.

“One of the saddest things after they both graduated was losing those parents - it was heartbreaking,” Goodfellow said. “They were so positive. They were so good to the program, so supportive of everybody and we became good friends.”

Tom and Ryan ended their high school careers as Hauppauge’s second and third highest scorers, respectively.

“They were both such outstanding players and students,” Goodfellow said.

Ryan will travel with Hartford to Ithaca to play against the Cornell Big Red in the NCAA tournament on Saturday night.

Tom will graduate and move on to a professional lacrosse career with the Boston Cannons, after being selected in the 20ll Major League Lacrosse draft.