Huntington Girls’ Lacrosse is This Close

This close. The Huntington girls’ lacrosse team came this close to pulling off a major upset before falling at William Floyd last Friday night, 7-6.

“We’re this close,” Katie Reilly told the team during a brief post-game meeting on the field. The first year head coach said the one goal difference would be noticed by teams around Suffolk and would send a message that the young Blue Devils were for real and had to be taken seriously; maybe even feared.

Huntington took a 2-0 lead before Floyd scored four unanswered first half goals and two more to open the second half. Trailing 6-2, Reilly rallied her troops.

Make no mistake, this was a full team effort. Reilly used time outs and constant adjustments to manipulate her offense and defense in ways that proved very effective against William Floyd, one of the top teams on Long Island.

With Huntington’s defense playing great and eighth grade starting goalie Andie DiGioia making key saves, the Blue Devils slowly turned the tide as the score inched closer.

Kayleigh Bender repeatedly scored over a relatively short span to bring the Blue Devils all the way back to tie the game at 6-6. Floyd again took the lead with 6:37 remaining, but Huntington kept it close, forcing repeated turnovers and had several opportunities to tie the game. Two shots in the final seconds came awfully close to going in the goal, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Bender (38 goals; 24 assists) finished with four goals. Senior captain Gianna Forte (31g; 18a) scored twice. DiGioia (76 saves) made six saves. Senior captains Grace Agrillo and Laurel Bonn walked off the field drenched in sweat after giving the Blue Devils their all. The rest of the team was equally exhausted.

Huntington has started as many as two eighth graders and four freshman this spring. Yet, the Blue Devils have won nine games and suffered one goal losses to both William Floyd and Commack, teams that are near the top of the Suffolk standings.

With two starters out of the lineup as the recover from concussions, Huntington was shorthanded last Friday, but you would never have known it. Two more players stepped into those positions and performed their jobs well.

Reilly knows the team is heading in the right direction and she is more than happy with the effort being put forth by her players. “You played very hard,” she told the team in the post-game meeting. “Get up, shake their hands and walk out of here with your heads held up high.”