Northport Tames Lions

A strong season for the West Islip’s girls’ lacrosse team came to a disappointing end as Northport defeated the Lions 12-9 Monday in a Class A quarterfinal playoff game at the high school.

With West Islip leading 6-4 at halftime, the seventh-seeded Tigers roared back in a big way as Northport outscored the Lions 8-3 in a dominating second half performance.

With the win, Northport moves to the Class A semi-finals against No. 3 Ward Melville on Wednesday.

Down by two goals, Northport would get early second half goals from Allie Pavinelli (2) and Gabbi Labuskes to take a 7-6 lead. At that point, the game turned into Dorrien Van Dyke’s show as the Stony Brook-bound senior scored four consecutive goals for the Tigers to extend their lead to 11-8 with seven minutes remaining.

The Tigers would then play ball control, which served to eat clock and prevent West Islip from regaining possession.

The game started well for the Lions, who jumped out to a 5-1 lead less than nine minutes into the game. At that point, Northport switched from a zone to a man-to-man defense, which served to stymie the Lions offense.

Lindsay Darrell had 3 goals for West Islip, while Emily Piciullo and Vanessa Costantino had 2 goals each. Ruthann Dooling made 8 saves in goal for the Lions.