After letting a two-goal lead slip away, the Huntington High School boys’ lacrosse team rallied for two late game goals to nip visiting Sayville, 8-7 and advance to the Section XI Division II finals against Miller Place on Wednesday at 5 p.m. at Stony Brook University. Admission is $6.
Paul McDermott was right. Huntington’s head coach said before last week’s showdown that it was going to be “a very competitive game to the end.” The Blue Devils took a 3-1 first quarter lead and were ahead at halftime, 4-2. Then Sayville rebounded.
The Golden Flashes put on an aggressive display, forcing Huntington (15-3) into a defensive mode for much of the second half. Trailing 7-6, Pat Reilly tied the game for Huntington off a pass from Connor Birchard with 3:18 remaining. Billy Martin followed with the game winner off an assist from Chris Schoen with 5.4 seconds left on the clock. His goal sent the Blue Devils and their fans into delirium.
The final minutes of the game had the crowd of about 500 on its feet. Both teams had chances to break the deadlock, with wicked shots barely missing the goal and sensational saves by Huntington goalie Tyler Greenhill and his Sayville counterpart Kyle O’Reilly.
Martin ended the game with three goals and an assist. Reilly had two goals and an assist. John Long notched a pair of goals. Ben Kocis tallied a goal and an assist. Connor Birchard added two assists. Schoen’s lone assist was the most important of the year up to this point. Greenhill stopped nine shots in the net.
The Blue Devils had turned back Sayville (10-7) during a regular season contest, 8-4, but anything can happen in the playoffs and it almost did. Prior to the game, McDermott said that “Sayville is a very physical team. We need to be patient on offense, win face-offs and have outstanding defense and goalie play.” The coach was right.
The victory was Huntington’s 14th straight since it dropped an 11-5 verdict to Shoreham-Wading River on April 4. The win propels Huntington into the Suffolk Division II finals at Stony Brook’s LaValle Stadium. In Miller Place (13-5), the Blue Devils will face a foe they defeated on April 24 in a regular season game by a 7-4 score. Reilly had three goals and an assist and Martin had two goals on that day.
Blue Devil Notes: No. 5 Miller Place reached the county finals by toppling No. 1 Comsewogue, 9-7, which had come into the Suffolk semi-finals matchup with a 15-1 record . . . Huntington was seeded second in the Division II bracket . . . If Huntington wins the Section XI championship it will play for the Long Island regional crown on Saturday, June 1 at Hofstra University at 2 p.m. Admission will be $7 . . . Should Huntington win the LI title, it will advance to the state semi-finals at Marist College on Wednesday, June 5 at 3 p.m. at Marist College . . . The state Class B championship will be played on Saturday, June 8 at 11 a.m. at St. John Fisher College in Pittsford, outside of Rochester.
