Michael Meyer, Jack Helrigel lead Northport boys lacrosse over Huntington
Northport's Michael Meyer works the ball behind the net, and around Harrison Krywak of Huntington, during a Suffolk Division I boys lacrosse game in Huntington on Friday, April 22, 2022. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
Early on, things weren’t looking so good for defending Class A Long Island champion Northport.
“We were getting our shots on the offensive end, but we just weren’t capitalizing,” coach Larry Cerasi said. “We just needed to sharpen up a little bit with our shot selection.”
After trailing by three goals to Suffolk I rival Huntington after the first quarter, the Northport offense woke up, scoring eight of the next nine goals en route to defeating Huntington, 13-9, in a boys lacrosse matchup Friday morning at Huntington High School.
“We just felt really comfortable with our matchups and guys were able to maintain them. They played really well down the stretch there,” Cerasi said.
Northport (9-1) was led by Michael Meyer, who scored three goals and made five assists, and Jack Helrigel with two goals and two assists. Liam Lennon led the way for Huntington with three goals and Anthony Annunziata and Chris Maichin each scored two goals.
“We just didn’t let anything faze us, we kept our chins up,” Helrigel said. “We knew we were in this and we knew we were the better team, so we came out on top.”
Early on, Northport’s defense struggled to contain Huntington’s attack. Lennon and Maichin got the first scores of the game before Dylan McNaughton got on the board for Northport. Two more goals hit the back of Northport's net to end the first period trailing 4-1.
“Defensively we were a little out of whack at the beginning and a little shell- shocked,” goalie Luke LaMendola said.
From there Northport’s offense went on a flurry to take the lead 7-5 into halftime.
“At halftime we knew the game was far from over and we didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves,” Meyer said. “We came out in the third quarter the same way we stopped at halftime and kept going with what’s working.”
Northport scored four goals in the third, allowed two to the Blue Devils and took an 11-7 lead into the final quarter. From there Northport stayed in control and got the victory.
“This group is really battle-tested, there is no panic in them,” Cerasi said. “Even though [trailing] 4-1 is a big hole to climb out of, the boys were willing to do so. Our team really played Northport lacrosse those last three quarters.”
