West Islip Falls to Bay Shore

The season for the West Islip girls lacrosse team came to an abrupt end Wednesday at the hands of Bay Shore as the Marauders defeated the Lions 19-10 in a Division I semi-final playoff game at Bay Shore High School.

West Islip came out strong as goals by Erin Byrnes and Kylie Nowicki put the Lions up 2-1 less than three minutes into the first half.

But the second-seeded Marauders would respond strong scoring seven of the next eight goals to take an 8-3 lead to the half.

Throughout the first half Bay Shore controlled a majority of the faceoffs and often was a step ahead of West Islip on securing ground balls.

“(Bay Shore) has some well-rounded players,” said Joe Nicolosi, West Islip’s head coach. “But I can’t ask any more than what our team gave us today. The girls played their hearts out. They’re a great bunch of kids.”

Despite trailing by five, the Lions continued working and cut Bay Shore’s lead to 8-4 early in the second half when Riley Hill intercepted a pass from Marauders’ net minder Dylan Teitelbaum and scored into an empty net

Bay Shore quickly doused any comeback thoughts West Islip may have had by scoring the next four goals to stretch its lead to 12-4.

For West Islip, Hill had six points (4G, 2A), Erin Byrnes had four points (2G, 2A) and Lorraine Hodgson and Nowicki had two goals each.

The playoff loss to Bay Shore for the third straight year put an end to a playoff run for West Islip that included a tight 9-8 win over and a 17-11 upset win over in which Byrnes scored a school record nine goals.

“We had some great leadership on this team,” Nicolosi said. “A couple of the girls have been with me for three or four years. They did a great job this season taking this team to the semis.”