Blue Devil Girls’ Lacrosse Takes Another Step

The Huntington girls’ lacrosse program continues to strengthen and gather steam. The Blue Devil varsity went 9-5 in league play and 10-7 overall, reaching the Suffolk Division I playoffs before getting knocked out of the post-season by Northport.

Kayleigh Bender, Sabrina Boyle, Devon St. John and Jolie Weinschreider were named All-County. Ava McDonald, Reese Rinaldi and Grace Gordon earned spots on the All-Division team. Leighton Evans was tapped as Rookie of the Year. Isabella Palacios was the Blue Devils Unsung Hero Award recipient. Boyle was also voted All-Tournament by the Suffolk coaches.

Huntington was coached by Katie Reilly, Lauren Blackburn and Chris Taylor. The 19 player team was captained by Reese Rinaldi, Kayleigh Bender and Devon St. John.

“This team had a lot of heart and personality,” Reilly said. “They played every single game as hard as they could and to the final minutes, even when they were tired. We had contributors from all grades; eighth through twelfth. This team was very unselfish and that’s reflected in how many scorers we had each game. The defensive unit showed up huge against those top teams. I am truly proud of the effort that was given all season long and I hope the girls are proud of that, too.”

The top players included:

• Kayleigh Bender: Senior; 38 goals, 18 assists

Kayleigh Bender is an absolute beast,” Reilly said. “She is so strong and has amazing stick skills and vision. She was a leader in work ethic, constantly staying after practice and grinding and is in many ways unstoppable. So many coaches came up to me after games and were so impressed by her, and many teams also face guarded her knowing how great of a player she is.”

• Sabrina Boyle: Junior; 41 goals, 15 assists, 80 draw controls

“We are so lucky that Sabrina decided to come to Huntington after playing at Our Lady of Mercy Academy,” Reilly said. “She fits into our team perfectly with her unselfishness and she absolutely dominated the draw against every team we played. She sees the field so well on offense and delivered in crucial moments, including a tying goal in the last seconds of the Comsewogue game to send us into overtime and in the playoff game and Northport where she had three goals and an assist against the No. 3 team.”

• Devon St. John: Junior; 19 goals, 9 assists, 29 draw controls

“Devon was a miracle worker in the midfield,” Reilly said. “The way she sprinted past players even after she had run up and down the field for the entire game showed exactly why she is a D-1 commit. She was huge when it came to the draw circle as well, making the most athletic plays jumping over people to catch the ball one-handed. It was incredible.”

• Jolie Weinschreider: Sophomore; 29 goals, 7 assists, 18 draw controls

“Jolie is a key player to our team and is another player that was face-guarded multiple games due to her incredible stick skills and shooting,” Reilly said. “When Jolie put her mind to scoring a goal, it was executed beautifully. Jolie also has tremendous skill in taking the draw when we needed that ball.”

• Grace Gordon: Sophomore; 21 goals, 16 assists, 18 draw controls

“Grace Gordon stepped up in huge ways for us this season,” Reilly said. “Formerly an attacker, Grace stepped into the midfield position and really shined. She more than doubled her output from last year and was the final piece to our draw circle team, which battled game in and game out. She did a lot of unnoticed work including those moments when we needed high pressure on defense.”

• Ava McDonald: Freshman; 11 caused turnovers

“Ava McDonald is a ‘lights out’ defender,” Reilly said. “Her IQ and ability to anticipate allowed her to yet again have an amazing season. She was oftentimes put on the best attacker and shut her down. She is so tough and gritty and you would never know she is only a freshman with the confidence and poise she plays with. She would even clear the ball up at times when we just needed it to be safely delivered to the attack.”

• Bridget Callery: Sophomore;13 goals, 16 assists

“Bridget had another amazing season of orchestrating the offense, always playing with her head up looking for the feed,” Reilly said. “She plays so well with her left-hand, you couldn’t really tell what her dominant hand was and she handled double-teams with ease.”

• Reese Rinaldi: Senior; 15 caused turnovers

“Reese Rinaldi plays with such passion and energy and was in charge of face-guarding some of the best players on Long Island,” Reilly said. “When she had a mission, she got it done and her ability to lock in on those players was the reason we won some of those must-win games.”

• Isabella Palacios: Sophomore; 13 caused turnovers

• Kyra Larsen: Sophomore; 7 caused turnovers

“Izzy and Kyra were awesome on defense,” Reilly said. “A lot of the work they did this year went unnoticed because as a defender when you do what you're supposed to do; you don’t always notice because it doesn’t draw that attention. We have loved seeing both of them improve so much from last year.”

Leighton Evans scored four goals and played standout defense as a freshman on the varsity. “Leigh was awesome this year and received All-Rookie,” Reilly said. “She worked hard every single day and absolutely shined as a defensive middie when we needed her the most.”

Goalies Juj Johnson (46 saves) and Andie DiGioia (42 saves) surprised opponents considering Johnson is an eighth graders and DiGioia is a freshman who already has two outstanding seasons under her belt in the varsity cage.

“We had two goalies this year that were a huge part of our team in Andie and Juj,” Reilly said. “For being underclassmen, they handled the pressure of important games really well. They worked really hard to push themselves while also supporting one another.”

One of the highlights of the season was a win over Smithtown East for a second consecutive year. Two goal regular season losses to Northport and Ward Melville showed Huntington’s improvement, which lost to Northport by seven goals and Ward Melville by five goals in 2023. “We also beat Longwood, a top team, who we haven’t seen in the past few years, which I think show our team’s confidence in taking on any opponent.”

Huntington is graduating only Bender and Rinaldi. “So the majority of our starting lineup returns,” Reilly said.

Striving to win the county championship is something that motivates Blue Devil players and coaches daily.