Goalie Sammy Mac Arner played the best game of his career, stopping 17 blistering shots to lift the Huntington boys’ lacrosse team over Connetquot at Blue Devil Stadium on Saturday morning, 6-4. It was Huntington’s first playoff win in nine years.
The game began late Friday afternoon, but rain soon started falling. With the score knotted at 3-3 at halftime, thunder, lightning and heavy rain led to a suspension of play. When the action resumed under sunny skies on Saturday, Arner and the Blue Devils were ready with an inspired performance that propelled No. 4 Huntington to a Suffolk Division I Final Four showdown at No. 1 Northport on Thursday afternoon.
Sammy Mac Arner had his biggest game ever in goal. (Darin Reed photo.)
Liam Lennon (32 goals; 14 assists) tallied two goals and an assist to pace the Blue Devil offense. Chris Maichin (29g; 16a) had a goal and two assists. Anthony Annunziata (19g; 6a) Ethan Evans (12g; 11a) and Aidan McNulty (23g; 38a) all scored in the game.
“I thought we played great team lacrosse,” McNulty said. “Our defense held it down the whole game keeping them to just four goals and our goalie, Sammy Mac played incredible. Our offense was a bit slow at first with the sloppy conditions, but we battled and got it going the next day to secure the win. It was a great feeling to win our first playoff game since 2013, but our mentality is onto the next game and we are hungry for the county championship.”
Annunziata dominated the faceoff circle late in the game against Connetquot. Aidan Carrello scooped up seven ground balls. While Robbie Smith (31g; 17a) didn’t score in the game, he couldn’t be ignored by No. 5 Connetquot and drew defenders away from some of the other Blue Devils.
“It was a great team win today,” Smith said. “We worked hard all week to prepare for this moment and it paid off. We are excited about the upcoming game and plan to continue to have high intensity practices to prepare for Northport.”
Huntington dropped a 13-9 verdict to Northport during the regular season. The Blue Devils led 4-1 early in that game. Northport advanced to the county semifinals by way of a 15-7 victory over Half Hollow Hills on Saturday.
Section XI will be charging an admission fee to enter Thursday afternoon’s game. Ticket prices are $5 at the game for students and $7 for adults, who should click on https://gofan.co/app/school/NYSPHSAAXI the day of the game.