West Islip girls lax roar in second half

They played fast but they didn't rush. They soared because they stayed grounded.

West Islip scored the first seven goals of the second half and turned a tight game at the half into a rout, taking down defending county champ Bay Shore, 16-9, Thursday, in a Suffolk girls lacrosse Division I game at West Islip. Both teams are 3-1 in league play.

"In the first half, we were a little nervous and we tried to rush it," said West Islip attack Loren Ziegler, who scored three of her four goals in the second half.

"Everyone shot better and we won most of the draws in the second half," said Lions attack Erin Byrnes, who scored three of her five goals in the second half.

Bay Shore led 6-5 at halftime as its star, Caroline deLyra darted out from behind the cage to score from a sharp angle with two minutes left before intermission. She was only to score one more goal after that, however, as West Islip won faceoffs and gobbled up nearly every groundball in sight.

Most of those were by hustling Erin Collins, who charged in from the wing on faceoffs, grabbed the loose ball and got the Lions roaring downfield in transition. "Groundballs. It's my thing," Collins said with gusto. "Groundballs all day long. That's what I do." Collins also had a goal and two assists.

The second-half flurry began with Byrnes scoring on a nice crease feed from Rainey Hodgson to tie it at 6 less than a minute into the half. Then came the game-changing explosion, as West Islip scored four goals in 2:19. Ziegler scored unassisted on the break for the Lions' first lead of the game, followed by Cara Douglas (three goals, two assists) in the slot on a feed from Kate Beier (one goal, two assists); Byrnes on another Beier assist, and Ziegler unassisted in transition.

SEE PHOTOSWest Islip 16, Bay Shore 9

"We executed much better in the second half," Lions coach Joe Nicolosi said. "We were throwing and catching. We shot better and we got better looks. We won six straight faceoffs and scored every time. We got the groundballs and our transition game was much better."

A victory over the team that ousted them by one goal in last year's Suffolk Class A semifinals is a confidence builder for West Islip, which unlike the boys' team that has won seven straight county crowns, has never won one. "They support us. We support them. We want to be that good," Ziegler said. "We're not letting anyone take the title from us this year."