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By Jaclynkelli Kronemberg
TopLaxRecruits.com, Posted 6/2/14
SHIRLEY, N.Y. – Lena Riportella tallied five goals to spark West Islip to a 12-8 win over defending State Champion Farmingdale for its first Class A Long Island lacrosse championship Sunday at the Dowling Sports Complex.
West Islip (20-0) – No.4 in the Brine/TopLaxRecruits Rankings – advances to play Suffern (Section 1) at 2:30 pm Friday at Cortland University in the New York State semifinals.
West Islip – Long Island Class A champion
“This feels amazing,” said Riportella. “We are 20-0 now. We have two more games and we have to play it game by game.
“We’ve made history three times now, first going undefeated then winning the Suffolk County Championship and now winning the LIC. We want to keep going and win States.”
After a 5-5 first half, Vanessa Constantino gave the Lions a 6-5 lead just 35 seconds into the stanza. Almost two minutes later Emily Piciullo made it 7-5 and at 16:02 Farmingdale was hit with a yellow card Lindsey Darrell made it 8-6.
Another yellow card – causing a two-man advantage – sparked a 3-0 West Islip run as Lindsey Darrel found Grace Davidson to make it 11-7. Darrell tallied two goals and two assists and Constantino tallied one goal and two assists for West Islip. West Islip also grabbed 15 of the 22 draws.
“This was a great win,” said West Islip head coach Joe Nicolosi. “We were 5-5 at half time and we had 25 minutes left in the season and the bottom line is we had to win that second half to continue on.
Lena Riportella
“We did a great job on ground balls, we did a good job clearing the ball and our ride from the attack and middies when they couldn’t clear the ball were phenomenal.”
Nicolosi said no lead was safe against a team like Farmingdale.
“Nothing is comfortable; you can score four goals in two minutes in this game especially with some of the fabulous, top notch players on Farmingdale,” he said. “I just wanted us to control the tempo of the game, control the ball, get it on the offense and use the clock.
“These girls earned it. They are a special bunch of kids that work hard, are dedicated and deserve to go to States. We are just going to get on this bus, take this ride and take it to where it goes.”
Riportella said the Lions refocused at halftime.
“During half time our coach said it could be 25 minutes left in the season or 25 minutes left in the game; and we can go to states and continue playing,” she said. “We wanted it more. We played like it, we pushed ourselves and we got it.
“Once we went up by four that was when we had a feeling we could actually do it but there was still enough time for them to come back so we kept pushing ourselves. This is the best feeling ever.”
Olivia Kirk grabbed nine saves, Jillian Alonso tallied two goals and one assist and Bridget Weill tallied two goals for Farmingdale (9-8).
“They capitalized on every mistake that we made,” said Farmingdale head coach Shari Campbell. “This has been the name of our entire season. We could not limit our mistakes and we could not win the draw.”
West Islip 12, Farmingdale 8
West Islip 5-7-12
Farmingdale 5-3-8
West Islip: Lena Riportella 5G, Lindsey Darrell 2G, 2A; Vanessa Constantino 1G, 2A; Emily Beier 1G, 1A; Emily Piciullo 1G, 1A; Grace Davidson 1G; Riley Hill 1G
Farmingdale: Jillian Alonso 2G, 1A; Bridget Weill 2G; Chrissy Kelly 1G, 2A; Samantha Brescia 1G; Emily Marlow 1G; Zoe Zebersky 1G
Saves: Shannon McFadden (WI) 5; Olivia Kirk (F) 9
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