The West Islip Lions captured the Suffolk County Class A Championship for the seventh straight time on Thursday in front of more than 4,000 enthusiastic spectators at Stony Brook's LaValle Stadium who witnessed the Lions dominate the Ward Melville Patriots in the second half.
The top seeded Lions scored eight straight goals in the second half led by Nicky Galasso, Andrew Hodgson, and Mike Sagl.
The Patriots, who have lost to West Islip six consecutive times in the county final, came out with vengeance in the first half. The Patriots jumped out to an early 2-0 just 18 seconds into the game.
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But, West Islip settled in and scored two goals of their own to tie the game at 2-2 in the first quarter. Drew Federico had a first-half hat trick as West Islip took an 8-7 lead into halftime.
"I thought in the first half we played soft. I didn't think we executed. We were a step late. We weren't physical enough and then I thought in the third quarter we played the way we capable of playing," said West Islip head coach Scott Craig. "I thought a big key to it was our approach to groundballs off the faceoffs. That's what really turned in the third quarter and that's what generated a lot of our offense."
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The ferocious roar of the Lions was heard loud and clear in the third quarter when the Galasso to Hodgson combo struck twice in less than a minute to give West Islip a five goal lead. The Lions man handled the Patriots in the third quarter allowing no goals while gliding into the final 12 minutes of the game with a 13-7 lead.
"In the third quarter, he was outrageous," Craig said of Hodgson. "He lit the fire and then everyone else starting carrying the torch."
The Lions streak continued their onslaught in the fourth quarter when Sagl scored an easy goal while untouched right in front of the cage. Galasso would net his 56th goal of the season with a beautiful one-handed rap around while falling to the ground. The UNC-bound senior scored the final goal of the game for the Lions and ended the championship match with a county-leading 114 points.
"We had to come out hard [in the third quarter]. They played us tough in the first quarter but we knew we had the energy and we had the focus to come out and start putting the ball in the cage and that's what we did," Galasso said.
The Lions will ride their 18-game win streak into theLong Island Class A championship game at 8 p.m. on Tuesday at Hofstra against Farmingdale.
When the final horn sounded the boys threw their gear in the air and huddled together at midfield.
The Lions have proven why they are regarded as the top ranked high school lacrosse team in the nation.
"It feels great. It's what we wanted. We want to keep going and take one step at a time," said Galasso.
