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Andrew Fazio, a 5-foot-1 junior long-stick midfielder for Lakeland/Panas, in action vs. Iona Prep on Saturday. (Photo by Jim Stout/MaxPreps.com)

• For a photo gallery from the Lakeland/Panas-Iona Prep game, click here.

• Saturday scores and highlights

The first thing you notice when you see Andrew Fazio on the lacrosse field is that his stick is about as long as he is.

But then, after watching him play defense for a few minutes, it’s quite apparent that despite his small size — he’s 5-foot-1, 130 pounds — he has as big an impact on the game as just about anyone.

Fazio, a junior long-stick midfielder, was one of the reasons Lakeland/Panas pulled out a 10-9 win Saturday at Iona Prep. In addition to his defensive play, Fazio was also key as a wing player on faceoffs, scooping up several loose balls after the initial draw.

“He’s a little spark plug,” Lakeland/Panas coach Jim Lindsay said of Fazio. “He only started playing lacrosse a couple of year ago.”

Prior to that, Fazio had concentrated on soccer. Now he’s a key contributor in both sports. How does he overcome his lack of size?

“I play aggressively,” Fazio said. “That’s it.”

Since he started playing lacrosse, Fazio has  always played defense.

“I like defense because I like to hit people,” he said.

Lindsay said he had no hesitancy starting Fazio despite his size.

“I played with Joe Ceglia,” said Lindsay of the 5-foot-6 former Yorktown, Syracuse and MLL star defenseman. “I’ve seen enough other examples too where you can’t judge a player by his size.”

Fazio said his lack of size means just one thing.

“I just have to play harder,” he said.

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