Ward Melville Girls Lax Halted in County Quarterfinals

MASTIC – In erasing a five-goal deficit, drawing even with William Floyd with less than four minutes remaining, the Ward Melville girls lacrosse team had erased a five-goal deficit just to get to that point. It was unable, however, to get over the top and into the semifinals.

Floyd’s Octavia Williams scored on a free-position shot with 2:17 remaining to break the tie, and a win on the ensuing draw allowed the fifth-seeded Colonials to run out the clock, recording a 10-9 victory in the Suffolk County Class A quarterfinals.

“I think we came out a little flat in the first half, and we just dug a hole that was a little too deep,” Ward Melville head coach Kerri Kilkenny said. “It was as if we were playing in a fog.”

Floyd (14-3) advances to face top-ranked Northport Thursday. The Tigers went through the League I schedule unbeaten and disposed of Middle Country, 15-5, in their quarterfinal clash. It marked the fourth consecutive season that ended in the quarterfinals for Ward Melville. The Patriots (10-7), who were seeded fourth in the bracket, were knocked out by Bay Shore in 2008 and Northport in both 2009 and 2010.

While the Patriots were ousted from the tourney, the future’s bright. They lose two key cogs on offense, Beltrani and Jess Liberty, but return their entire midfield and defense as well as both goalies.

Still, Ward Melville had intentions of reaching the county semifinals for the first time since they went all the way in 2007. When Ally Tilley scored the second of her two free-position goals, which came about two minutes apart, the Patriots had come all the way back from 7-2 down to knot the score at 9. At that point, they had outscored Floyd 6-1 in the second half.

Liberty started the surge with a point-blank shot set up by Kelsey Catalano, and after a nice defensive stand, Emily Rogers-Healion weaved through heavy traffic to score and make it 7-5. Her second goal in a five-minute span sliced the deficit to one.

“We finally realized that we needed to use our cutters,” Kilkenny said. “Once we got two or three ones in there, it sparked our attack.”

A pair of Floyd goals suggested that the hosts might hold on, but Nagle corralled a feed from Rogers-Healion and fired to make it 9-7, and Tilley followed up with her pair of goals, which followed Floyd fouls near its cage.

“I commend them for playing hard to the end,” Kilkenny said. “They dug deep.”

Melville had carried some momentum into halftime courtesy of a controversial call. Lizzy Rullan rifled a free-position shot that was saved by Colonials goalie Chelsea Sidaras. The rebound went right to Kelsey Nagle, who quickly redirected it into the cage. It seemingly crossed the line after the horn sounded, but officials ruled it beat the clock, cutting Floyd’s lead to 7-3.

It closed out a half in which Colonials star Courtney Murphy struck five times. She finished with a game-high six goals.

Rogers-Healion led Melville with three goals, while Tilley and Maddy Wollmuth had two apiece. Nagle had a multi-point day herself, tallying a goal and two assists.