Marcus Wertheim leads Smithtown East boys lacrosse to statement win over Huntington

With 80% of the regular season already in the books, one team had stood out above the rest in the taut battle for supremacy in Suffolk Conference I boys lacrosse. No one had been able to land a glove on Huntington as it opened this season on a 10-game win streak. On Thursday, however, the Blue Devils finally got tagged.

Smithtown East built a big early lead provided by Marcus Wertheim, Chris Cappelmann and Andrew Donato and then spent virtually the entire second half staving off the rallying Devils before eking out a 9-7 victory at the Bulls’ Schroeder Field.

East goalie Nick Matthes made eight of his 13 saves after the Bulls took a 7-2 lead into the intermission. And Wertheim made the most of the small handful of possessions Smithtown East (8-3) got after the break, scoring his fourth goal for an 8-4 lead with 6:40 left in the game and notching his second assist on a Cappelmann goal for the 9-7 margin with 1:23 to play.

"It’s a big deal because [Huntington] had been better than everyone else and by winning this, it shows we are capable of beating anyone if we play right," Matthes said.

"They were doing a good job of keeping the score down where they wanted it," Cappelmann said. "And they were tough on long possessions in the second half, but our defense rose up to it. We maybe haven’t played a consistent four quarters yet \[of] offense and defense, but both have been there."

Cappelmann and Donato each had two goals and an assist for Smithtown East. Robby Smith scored three times and had an assist and Aidan McNulty had a pair of goals for the Blue Devils (10-1).

"We ran out of time, falling behind and starting our comeback too late," Huntington coach Julian Watts said. "And [Wertheim] was just the best player out there today. We took a lot of measures to stop him and none worked."

SEE PHOTOSPhotos: Smithtown East vs. Huntington boys lacrosse

East scored six unanswered goals over the final 10:09 of the second quarter — three by Wertheim and two by Donato — for the 7-2 halftime lead. Huntington outscored the Bulls 2-0 in the third quarter with unassisted goals by Smith and McNulty and then turned the heat up further in the fourth quarter.

The Devils scored three times in a 1:28 span, the last coming from Smith off a centering pass from Jack Krisch with 2:51 left to make it 8-7. East’s Matt Terrana won the ensuing faceoff to set the table for the late Wertheim-to-Cappelmann score. Matthes stopped a hard, low shot with just over a minute left that would have again made it a one-goal margin.

Both Bay Shore and Smithtown West had beaten East and lost to Huntington earlier this season. Thus taking out Huntington became a point of pride for the Bulls.

"We have gotten better since those losses — we’re trending up," Wertheim said. "We have another week or so to keep getting better before the playoffs."

By Roger Rubin

roger.rubin@newsday.com@rogrubin

Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.