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West Islip lacrosse survives trip to NJ
West Islip braved the cross Cross Bronx Expressway and the Ridgewood Maroons to move to 7-2 on the season with a 9-5 victory over the Garden State foe on Saturday afternoon.
Tom Moore lead the way for the Lions with a 3 goal, 4 assist performance to pace a squad that has been to Suffolk lacrosse what Don Bosco is to North Jersey football, really good for a really long time.
“They’re a talented squad, there’s no doubt about it, they’re loaded” said Ridgewood coach Mike Pounds of the eight-time defending Suffolk A champs. “We played them hard but we didn’t finish, we had some opportunities but we just couldn’t finish enough to be there in the end.”
The Maroons gave West Islip all it could handle and trailed by just three at half with the score at 6-3, but the strength and depth of West Islip and the inability of Ridgewood to seize its chances and perhaps momentum, proved to be too big of a hill.
“We played really hard we just couldn’t finish,” said Ridgewood midfielder Blake Feagles. “Defensively we converted to a zone and executed that really well, we just have to make our shots on offense, that was the deciding factor.”
Feagles was one of the Maroons to make his shots on the day converting a couple of goals, but Ridgewood just couldn’t seem to climb back within striking distance. Limiting West Islip to fewer than 10 goals is something only Chaminade and Smithtown West have done should be considered an accomplishment in and of itself, so coach Pounds used that to rally his team after the game.
“We would love to have gotten a win but I’m extremely happy with the way our guys played today” Pounds said. “We have some guys feeling their way into their rolls, some guys that didn’t play last year and this is a great experience for them, definitely proud of the way we fought till the end. ”
Ridgewood would fail to score in the third quarter and West Islip would tally three straight goals to stretch the lead to 9-3. Despite a valiant effort by Ridgewood to rally and knot it up in the fourth, the Lions would hold on for a good out of state win.
When the dust settled the shot totals for the game actually favored Ridgewood, West Islip’s talented stable of snipers just made its chances count. Mike Moynihan and Brendan Smith chipped in 2 goals apiece for West Islip and Brown-bound goaltender Jack Kelly was solid in net with 13 saves in the win.
For coach Pounds it’s on to the next one now and right back into league play with a game against Northern Highlands tomorrow. “Right back at it now, we’re looking to the next challenge and excited to try and get these guys on a roll. To play with one of the better teams in the country and hang should be a building block for us.”
The Maroons will barely have enough time to dry out their equipment as they play again in just a few hours, 11 a.m. Sunday morning against the Highlanders.
Contact John Quirk at jquirk@cablevision.com. Follow him on Twitter: @QuirkMedia
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