Good and Bad Lacrosse News
There was good news and bad for the East Hampton High School lacrosse teams last week.
The boys, who as of earlier this week were 1-1 in division play, bounced back from a 15-8 loss here to Rocky Point by thumping Southampton 15-2 Friday, and the girls, after routing Bellport 18-5, were, in turn, polished off 15-4 by Hauppauge, dropping them to 2-1 in division play.
Given East Hampton’s performance in the game here on March 27 with Bellport, the girls coach, Matt Maloney, thought “we would continue moving forward,” but his charges “didn’t have their best day at Hauppauge . . . and you have to be at your best when you’re up against a team of Hauppauge’s caliber.”
Newsday rated Hauppauge as the top Class B school in its preseason issue Sunday. “Hauppauge is loaded this year and is indisputably the team to beat in Class B. It is led by All-Americans Stephanie Peragallo, the number-two defender in the nation, and Taylor Ranftle, the number-four attack. . . .”
“We started off the way we wanted to at Hauppauge, causing three or four turnovers in the first 10 minutes,” Maloney said. “However, every time we caused a turnover we either gave it right back or did not capitalize on offense. You have to take advantage of the mistakes of a team like that, which we did not do.”
Maggie Pizzo, who had scored seven goals in the Bellport game, found the nets three times at Hauppauge. Amanda Seekamp had the other goal, and she had one assist. Bronte Marino was credited with an assist also.
As for the boys’ loss to Rocky Point — they were losing 10-3 at halftime — their coach, Mike Vitulli, said, “We played a good first quarter, but a bad second quarter. At halftime we made a couple of adjustments and played with more enthusiasm thereafter. We started to see some positive things. It was a good game for us, but we’ve got to play all 48 minutes to win. . . . We’ve got to cut down on our turnovers between the boxes and move the ball better, make that extra pass.”
The scoring in the second half was even, at 5-5. Drew Griffiths finished with three goals for the Bonackers. James Budd, Cortland Heneveld, Bryan Seekamp, Drew Harvey, and Ryan Fitzgerald each scored one.