L.I. girls rolling at Empire State Games

**UPDATE**: The Long Island girls completed their mission by earning the gold medal in a 17-7 win over Western on Sunday. Courtney Fortunato and Shannon Gilroy, teammates at Northport, led the team with five goals apiece, while Erin Collins (St. John the Baptist) and Kelly McPartland (Farmingdale) each added two. Chelsey Sidaras (Floyd) and Kelly Weis (Garden City) each made five saves. Below are the updated stats for all six games of the tournament, in which the girls outscored their opponents 85-25.

Long Island swept all three classifications of the NYSPHSAA girls lacrosse championships in Cortland last month for the second straight year, so it's not surprising that Long Island's Scholastic girls team is dominating the competition at the Empire State Games.

The team, which is guided by Northport coach Carol Rose and is the three-time defending champion of the event, is a perfect 5-0 going into the gold medal game against the Western Region at noon tomorrow at Niagara University.

On Friday morning, Long Island beat Western 14-5 just before their toughest game of the weekend, a 5-2 win over the Hudson Valley. Mikaela Rix (pictured) led L.I. with three goals in the second game of the doubleheader.

Yesterday, they earned a 17-5 win over the Adirondack Region and a 21-6 victory over the Central Region, and today, they scored all 11 of their goals in a shutout win over New York City. They've outscored their opponents 68-18.

For more on the team from our own Bob Herzog, who's covering the weekend's events in the Buffalo area, click here and here. 

Four of the girls on the team were first-team All Long Island selections and another five were on the second team (keep in mind, just-graduated seniors do not participate in the event).

Our Long Island player of the year, Shannon Gilroy of Northport, has scored 10 goals, and Nassau player of the year Caroline Tarzian of Garden City has added three. 

Yet it is their teammates who have stole the show. Courtney Fortunato, a rising sophomore from Northport (who is the youngest player on the team), has scored 11 times, and Rix of the five-time defending state Class B champion Trojans, leads the team with 13 goals.

Rix was first-team All Long Island, and Fortunato was on the second team. 

Fortunato has had a busy couple of weeks, as just last weekend she led her Under-15 team to a national championship in Disney World.

Here is the complete team roster with stats from all five games: