Lions Defense Shuts Down Connetquot

West Islip has built its lacrosse program into a national juggernaut thanks in part to a suffocating team defense and strong goaltending. On Friday afternoon, that formula helped the Lions punch their ticket to an eighth consecutive appearance in the Suffolk County championship game.

Kyle Turri made five saves, but it was the defenders in front of the Duke bound netminder that suffocated Connetquot's potent offensive attack en route to a 6-2 win.

West Islip will meet Smithtown West, , in the county finals on Wednesday afternoon at Stony Brook University. The third-seeded Bulls punched their ticket to the county finals with a 15-7 win over second-seeded Ward Melville.

"We just played very good man-to-man defense," said Lions head coach Scott Craig. "Our slide package was solid and we didn’t give them a lot quality looks. We put them in a position where we thought all we really left them was high to high shots, and with Turri on high to high shots, if he can see them coming, he’s going to make some stops. We gave them really nothing inside."

Drew Federico and Tom Moore each netted a pair of goals for West Islip (18-0), who struggled to find offense of their own early on. They led 2-0 after the first quarter.

Zach Oliveri made a number of saves from close range to keep the T-Birds (13-6) within striking distance. The teams traded possessions early on, but neither team was able to break away.

"They packed the zone in real tight with a great goalie," said Craig. "Zach made two or three great saves. We’re in a situation where it was 3-1 and it could’ve been four, five maybe even 6-1."

The Lions took a narrow 2-1 advantage into halftime thanks to a goal by Connetquot's John Zullo with just 33 seconds remaining in the second quarter.

Federico and Moore each scored again in succession, pushing the Lions' lead to 4-1.

Less than two minutes later, Craig Kiernan had a quick answer for the T-Birds on a shot that handcuffed Turri and beat him to the inside post. Connetquot trailed 4-2 heading to the fourth quarter, but failed to muster many more scoring opportunities.

"We kind of played the clock after that point in time," said Craig. "The way the game was, there was no point to really force the situation at all. Show some poise, show some ball control, we’ll take the opening when it presents itself. We got a couple goals down the stretch because the openings started to present itself inside."

Mike Pelligrino and Brendan Smith tacked on late goals for West Islip to put the game out of reach.