Sports

One More Win to Go

State title within grasp of West Islip after semifinal win

The West Islip Lions are now within one win of repeating as New York State Class A lacrosse champions after West Islip's 20-10 win over the Lakeland/Panas Rebels Thursday night. West Islip will now play for the state title on Saturday at 4 p.m. at Stony Brook University against Fairport High School.

"We want to end our careers off with another state title and we're back in the state championship looking to do it," said senior Andrew Hodgson, who had four goals and four assists for the Lions.

Even with star attackman Nicky Galasso being held to two goals against Lakeland/Panas, West Islip still displayed the explosiveness of their offense with senior Rob Moore, who had five goals and an assist, leading the way. 

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"There was a lot of concentration on Nicky and Hodgson. It opens up some opportunities for me to take it to the cage," said Moore.

The Lions took an 8-5 lead at the half but blew the game open in the third quarter with eight goals to pull away and set up a match-up in the finals against Fairport, which beat Ithaca 8-6 to advance to the finals. West Islip head coach Scott Craig said he didn't know much about Ithaca, but added, "They're going to have to be a very good offensive team to outshoot us."

Find out what's happening in West Islipwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The West Islip Lions have won three state Class A titles in the last four years, but for seniors like Galasso, Hodgson and Moore, winning another in their senior year would be special.

"Now we can say we're going to the states, I want to win it big," said Galasso. 

 


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