Kayla Gilmore leads Floyd past Commack

The Floyd girls lacrosse team has been battled-tested throughout the spring, building toward May. And the Colonials are ready to prove they can play with – and potentially knock off – anybody.

Floyd defeated visiting Commack, 5-3, in a physical Suffolk Division I matchup Tuesday. Floyd enters the playoffs 11-3 in the league, with its three losses by a total of six goals, and on a seven-game winning streak.

“We really needed this one,” said midfielder Kayla Gilmore, who had two goals Tuesday. “We knew it was going to be a tough, back-and-forth game, so I think just to be able to pull it out going into the playoffs, we are ready and we know we can compete with anyone. As a team, we’re all in the right mindset.”

The Colonials have played a challenging schedule this season, including losses to Suffolk Class A favorites such as Northport and Ward Melville. But Floyd, which lost in the Suffolk Class A quarterfinals last season, thinks it can upset some higher seeds and make a deeper postseason run this spring.

“Our mindset is to win the championship,” coach Paul Vassallo said. “Our mindset is to upset two teams that are above us. Our goal is to win. I think we’ve made a statement across our games in the division.”

Gilmore scored two goals in the opening seven minutes to give Floyd an early 2-0 advantage. Commack (8-5) rallied late in the first half with goals from Amelia Brite and Ashley Kolomechuk in a 16-second span to cut Floyd’s lead to 4-3 with 1:27 remaining in the second half. The Floyd defense -- including Emily Murtha, Jacky Sutherland, Breanna Solero and Allison Filosa, with nine saves from Amanda Jones -- kept Commack off the scoreboard for the remainder of the contest.

“We communicate all the time and we have a really solid defense,” Murtha said. “Defense is a big part of winning games and if we have a solid defense, it will help us against the bigger teams.”

Kayden Meyer scored off an assist from Emma DiMaio with 6:06 remaining in the second half for the game’s final goal.

“I knew we needed another one to really lock in the win,” Meyer said. (Commack was) hyped up and we needed that goal to finish the win.”

“Kayden came up super clutch,” Vassallo said. “I worked with her a little bit before practice to try to get her confidence up and just let her know we believe in her and fire away when you’re ready. It was really exciting to see her connect today.”

Gilmore added six draw controls, three ground balls and two caused turnovers.

‘When you have a player like Kayla, she makes our jobs a little easier,” Vassallo said. “She’s the do-it-all player … we are grateful to have her and we’re excited to let her lead the push to the playoffs.”

Meyer finished with two goals, DiMaio had two assists, Ava Tiedemann had a goal and Tara DiMaio (Emma's sister) had an assist for Floyd.

Floyd is two seasons removed from back-to-back six-win seasons. The Colonials hope to show times have changed.

“We definitely treated this game as a playoff game,” Vassallo said. “We’re ready to go. We’re excited, we’re prepared and just working toward one more practice every single day.”