Sports
East Girls Lacrosse Falls to West Islip
The East Girls lacrosse team could not withstand two big runs in the middle of each half and were defeated by West Islip 20-11.
Both teams entered Monday afternoon’s contest coming off emotional games – Smithtown East was coming off a tough last minute 16-15 loss to cross-town rival Smithtown West and West Islip had just beaten Bay Shore 16-9 in a big game for the program. Both teams came out a little slow to begin the game, but it was West Islip who recovered during the first half and eventually pulled away for a 20-11 victory.
Playing in her first game of the season, Marisa Grennan did her best to lead the Bulls, having a hand in 10 of the 11 goals. Grennan scored seven goals and assisted on three others.
“Marisa really stepped up in her first game of the season,” East coach Catherine Guerriere said after the game.
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East found itself down midway through the first half 6-3 before scoring two goals in 28 seconds to close the gap to 6-5. But off the ensuing faceoff West Islip’s Loren Ziegler – who finished the game with five goals and four assists – took the ball all the way down the field by herself, weaving in and out of the Bulls defense and depositing the ball behind goaltender Ericka Parks. That goal would turn out to be a momentum changer – it sparked a five goal run the left Smithtown trailing 11-6 at the half.
“I think the girls came out hard in the first half and we were more effective,” Guerriere said. “We made some critical errors causing fouls and we lost a little bit of the momentum in the second half.”
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After scoring with just 49 seconds left in the first half and picking up the opening goal in the second half the Bulls found themselves back within four goals. But over the next five and a half minutes West Islip reeled off another five-goal run that put the game away for good.
“We came out sloppy and underestimated Smithtown and played down to their level a little bit,” Lions assistant coach Tom Powers said. “In the second half we kind of got into them and they picked it up a little bit.”
With the lead stretched out to nine goals the Bulls played the Lions evenly over the final 15 minutes but it was not enough after falling behind earlier.
Guerriere stressed that her team committed too many fouls in the second half, specifically fouls that allowed West Islip free shots at the eight-meter hash.
The Bulls find themselves at 1-3 overall and in league play and will host Bay Shore in a league game Thursday afternoon. Face off is scheduled for 4:00 p.m.
