Michael Ippoliti's 14 saves give Farmingdale boys lacrosse the LI Class A crown

Michael Ippoliti gets chills when he talks about it.

His story of transferring from St. Dominic in the CHSAA to his hometown Farmingdale High School for his senior season is rare.

And after a 5-3 win over Northport in the Class A Long Island boys lacrosse championship at Stony Brook University on Saturday, Ippoliti’s senior year with the Dalers isn’t finished.

“It’s wild, you work your whole life for this,” Ippoliti said. “Getting to play when most teams aren’t, it’s really incredible, and I’m so proud of my guys. I love them.”

The Syracuse commit stopped 14 shots and earned most valuable player recognition in Farmingdale’s first Long Island title win since 2011.

The Dalers (17-3) trailed Northport 2-1 at halftime and sat locked 2-2 after the third quarter. Brendan O’Keefe gave Farmingdale its first lead of the game with 9:24 left in the fourth quarter before Jake Norton scored twice to seal the game.

Michael Tittmann made nine saves for the Tigers (16-4). O’Keefe said he tried shooting high on Tittmann throughout the game before slipping his go-ahead goal on a five-hole bounce shot.

“Chris Bergersen had a nice dodge down the alley and then they banged it out to me on the back side,” O’Keefe said. “I saw all the space to the middle of the field, so I hit a little dodge, got to the middle, took a shot and hoped it went in.”

Andrew Miller and Giancarlo Valenti each scored transition goals for Northport in the first quarter. Caden Lennon scored Farmingdale’s first goal off a feed from O’Keefe in the first quarter, then Sal Posillico tied the game 2-2 with 9:43 to play in the third.

Northport’s defense starring Miller, Valenti, Nick Tzimas and Jonathan Alfiero prevented Farmingdale from gaining offensive momentum through the first half.

“We felt like we didn’t play great in the first half,” Farmingdale coach Mike Hungerford said. “And obviously [Northport] had a lot to do with that. Their defensive matchups, how they played us, we didn’t finish. Ippoliti kept us in it for a while.”

“At halftime, we were looking a little down, but we just pulled ourselves together,” Norton added. “We knew this could be the last 24 minutes of our lives playing lacrosse together, and it could either be a good one, or we could go home.”

Instead, the Dalers advanced to play Scarsdale of Section I at UAlbany’s Fallon Field on Wednesday at 3 p.m. in the state semifinals.

Even after Miller, the Tigers’ long stick senior leader, scored his second goal with 2:22 to play in the fourth quarter. Northport won three consecutive Suffolk Class A titles and won the Long Island Championship the previous two seasons.

Long poles scored all three of the Tigers' goals on Saturday.

“We knew they had guys who could come down and liked to push transition and really shoot it,” Ippoliti said. “We had to slide and we had to treat them as a threat, treat them as shooters too because they can really rip it.”

Ippoliti stopped five shots in the second quarter and six in the third. Farmingdale has allowed three or fewer goals in nine games this spring with Ippoliti in net.

“My job is to make saves and put myself in a position to win,” Ippoliti said. "We did a good job all working together today, communicating, making stops and getting the ball back to our offense, to give them an opportunity to score."

“He’s really special,” Hungerford said. “Because in the biggest games, he plays his best. And that’s what great guys do, right? People saw it today.”

They’ll see it again as Farmingdale competes for its first state title since 2011, the same year it won its last Long Island Class A championship.