Wantagh Boys Lacrosse Take Down Bethpage in Quarterfinals

The Wantagh boys lacrosse team won in convincing fashion over Bethpage in their Class B quarterfinal match-up on Tuesday at Hofstra University's  Shuart Stadium by a score of 17-3. The B 1-2 seeded Warriors (14-3) started fast against the B 2-3 seeded Golden Eagles (11-6) to advance to the semifinals on Thursday evening.

“Bethpage is a very good team and I’ve seen them play much better than this game tonight, but we got up and down on them,” Wantagh head coach Gary Reh said. “I thought Michael Fitzpatrick did a wonderful job on the faceoff, giving us a lot of possession to really push the ball and get them in transition with our speed.”

John Ingrilli led Wantagh with five goals, all in the first half, and Ryan Walsh added two goals and three assists. Tom Engelhardt led Bethpage with two goals in the loss.

Wantagh sent an early message to Bethpage just 37 seconds into the game with a goal from Cory Stavis, who finished with three goals. Walsh and James Bonanno added goals to extend the lead to 3-0 with less than three minutes coming off of the clock in the first quarter. Engelhardt scored his teams’ first goal of the game just seconds later.

With the score at 4-2, Wantagh turned their offense into full gear to score three more goals before the end of the quarter. Ingrilli scored four of his five goals in the second, including a goal just before halftime off of a forced turnover and pass by Walsh.

Wantagh continued to control the majority of the possession to shut Bethpage out, putting in eight goals to head into halftime with a comfortable 15-2 advantage.

Engelhardt scored a goal midway through the third quarter to break a scoring drought of 24:06 for Bethpage and end a streak of 11 unanswered goals for Wantagh. Stavis and Sean Charkowick added second half goals for Wantagh to close out the big win and move into the Class B semifinals.

Bethpage previously defeated Jericho in the opening round but could not manage much against a tough Wantagh team as the three goals ties their lowest offensive output this season.

“They were on top of their game today. They are a great team in transition and have a lot of great shooters and I don’t think we played the best we could play,” said Bethpage head coach Erwin Dill. “We have a lot of young guys and will get a lot of our defense back next year. I think we will fare well.”

Wantagh has now won their last eight games, seven of which were by a double-digit margin. They have defeated their first two round opponents in the playoffs by a combined score of 36-7.

“We have to work on our six-on-six offense a little bit, but if we are able to push the ball in transition, then we are tough to cover and that is what we’ve been trying to do all year and we were able to do it today,” Reh said.

Wantagh will face the Manhasset  in the Class B semifinals on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at Hofstra for a chance at a spot in the championship game next week. 

Box Score: 

Goals-Assists: B: Engelhardt 2-0, Mahon 1-1, House 0-1. Totals: 3-1. W: Ingrilli 5-0, Stavis 3-0, Walsh 2-3, Von Bargen 2-1, Balzano 2-1, Bonanno 2-1, Charkowick 1-0, DeVito 0-1. Totals: 17-7. Goalies: B: Ritchie- 7 saves; W: Gambitsky- 6 saves, Fitzgerald- 3 saves.