Katie Browne scored three goals and blew past her 100th career point to help lift the Huntington girls’ lacrosse team over visiting Bay Shore at Blue Devil Stadium on Saturday, 9-98.
Browne scored in the opening minutes to record the 100th point of her storied Huntington career and went on to notch two more goals. It was a crucial win for the Blue Devils, who improved to 6-4 in league play and 7-5 overall. Bay Shore, which was ahead of Huntington in the standings coming into Saturday’s game, fell to 7-3 in the league and 8-4 overall.
“I starting playing lacrosse as a five year old, when I became involved in the Huntington Village Lacrosse organization,” Browne said. “Once I stepped on the field, I fell in love with the sport and stuck with lacrosse ever since. It has been an honor to represent my community by wearing a Huntington Blue Devil uniform and it has meant so much to me to play for the little girl who fell in love with the game so many years ago. Lacrosse will be a major aspect of my next four years at Bucknell and I’m so lucky to have had the opportunity to learn so much from the Huntington community and the high school team.”
After opening a wide lead, Huntington had to fight off a furious Bay Shore rally. The Blue Devils led at halftime, 6-4 and held a 9-5 second half advantage, before the Marauders stormed back a second time with three straight goals. Huntington held the ball for the final four minutes to seal the victory.
Missing three starting players due to a combination of illness and injury required Huntington to play inspired lacrosse and the Blue Devils did as head coach Shea Scully and assistants Katie Reilly and Chris Taylor implored the team to play their hearts out.
Gianna Forte (32 goals; 6 assists) tallied three goals and an assist. Regan Sansiviero added a pair of goals and an assist and Gretel Cassell notched a goal and an assist. Goalie Ainsley Proctor stopped four shots.
“A win against Bay Shore is exactly what we needed,” Forte said. “Bay Shore is a very good team, but we came out fired up, ready to play and wanted it more. I think this was a signature win for us and I’m excited to battle with a few more good teams.”
Sansiviero (20g; 19a), who will be joining Browne at Bucknell, continued her hot play. “I think today’s game was super exciting,” the senior said. “Our consistent intensity and competitiveness throughout this game is what allowed us to come out with the win. Everyone stepped up and played their hearts out and I think that if we play the way we did today in our next few games, we can bring some great competition and dominate the game.”
Cassell (16g; 3a) played a great all-around game and provided critical leadership on the field. “I think the game went super well,” the senior said. “When Gianna, Katie and I scored the first three goals in the first three minutes it really set the tone! Everyone stepped to where they needed to today despite having even more missing players. We really needed to win today and the fact that we did just proves what kind of a team we are. I’m looking forward to having more upset games in the next two weeks because teams really don’t expect us to play the way we do and that’s how we get up on teams like Bay Shore and Riverhead.”
The Blue Devils received contributions from everyone on the roster, including freshman Devon St. John, who has tallied four goals and five assists and played great defense throughout the season.
“I think we’ve had some tough games so far, but today we showed what we’re capable of, beating a team ranked ahead of us,” St. John said. “We came together as a team really well today and everyone worked so hard. We need to keep up this energy for the next four games and carry it through to playoffs!”
Huntington hosts Smithtown East on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. and Lindenhurst on Friday at 4 p.m. The Blue Devils play at Ward Melville and Connetquot next week to close out the regular season.
