Miller Place's Matt Liantonio at Long Island Lacrosse Showcase

Miller Place's Matt Liantonio was one of sixty of Long Island’s top lacrosse players in Nassau and Suffolk Counties that gathered for the third annual Long Island Lacrosse Showcase at Dowling College’s Brookhaven sports complex in Shirley Thursday night.

Athletes were broken into rising sophomore, junior (Liantonio's team) and senior teams and performed in front of a myriad of college coaches, who sat on the sidelines and watched, but were not allowed to communicate with them due to NCAA recruiting restrictions.

Suffolk won the senior and junior games, while Nassau took the sophomore contest. 7-6.

Suffolk saved the drama for the junior game in an 8-7 overtime win. Shoreham-Wading River’s Tim Rotanz scored three goals, including the game winner off an assist from Brian Ward (Bayport Blue Point). It's nothing new for him considering he led Long Island with 110 points in 2011.

Suffolk took no prisoners in the Rising Seniors game, beating Nassau handedly, 11-7. Hauppague’s Sam Llinares, who has a verbal commitment to play at Hofstra University, scored three goals. Locust Valley’s Chris Appell also recorded a hat trick.

“When we picked the team we only took the best athletes,” said Suffolk and William Floyd coach Desmond Magna. “We had a perfect mix of kids. We beat them up physically and were just better athletes today.”