Julia Huxtable's four goals, one assist spark Northport girls lacrosse to Suffolk final

Julia Huxtable didn’t want to let her older teammates down. Especially after senior midfielder Ella Cabrera had a keen prediction about Huxtable’s afternoon.

“One of my teammates, Ella Cabrera, told me, ‘You are going to have a day today, I can feel it,’” Huxtable said. “And I went out there and said ‘I’m going to prove her right’ and I had a day.”

Huxtable indeed had quite the day, posting four goals and an assist as top-seeded Northport defeated No. 5 Commack, 12-9, in a Suffolk Class A girls lacrosse semifinal at Northport Saturday afternoon.

“It makes me believe they trust me and know that I’m good and can be good,” said Huxtable, a sophomore. “That really gave me the motivation and a boost of confidence.”

Northport (17-1) advances to play No. 2 Ward Melville (17-1) in the Suffolk Class A final at 3 p.m. Wednesday at Newfield. The Tigers defeated Ward Melville, 9-8, during the season.

Northport scored three goals in the closing 2:19 of the first half to take a 7-3 lead into halftime and scored four of the game’s first five goals of the second half to take an 11-4 lead with 18:59 left in the second half.

“I think it was the difference in the game,” coach Carol Rainson-Rose said, “getting us a nice cushion.”

But Commack showed no quit. Commack (12-6) rallied to score four goals in six minutes to cut Northport’s lead to 11-8 with 8:18 left in the second half.

“They started winning some draws and scoring goals and that hurt us,” Rainson-Rose said. “They scored (four) unanswered goals right away, we had a time out and then we won two of the draws and scored after that.”

Huxtable scored her fourth goal of the game, coming off an assist from Shannon Smith, to end the Commack run and extend Northport’s lead to 12-8 with 5:35 left in the half.

“It felt great and definitely got everyone moving,” Huxtable said. “That’s when we realized we had this.”

Amelia Brite had four goals for Commack.

Kaylie Mackiewicz had three goals and an assist, Smith had two goals and two assists and Isabella Germani and Cabrera each had a goal and two assists for Northport, which has no shortage of playmakers.

“No one is selfish and everyone relies on each other,” Mackiewicz said. “Having girls you can trust is just amazing because you don’t have to be nervous to make that pass or think you have to do it all. We are doing it collectively as a team.”

Northport is the defending state Class A champions after winning the title in 2019. There were no state championships the last two springs because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Tigers won the Long Island Class A title last season. Northport hopes to defend both this season.

“Last year’s LIC, that’s what’s motivating us right now,” Mackiewicz said. “We are defending that title and we want to go all the way to get another state title and defend it.”