The South Fork boys lacrosse team, on which a number of East Hampton High School athletes play, had a chance last week to reap some power points in games with Riverhead and Smithtown East, but fell short by one goal on both occasions. In any event, the team, as anyone who has seen it play could attest, is a very good one, capable of giving any opponent all it can handle.
In Saturday morning’s game, most of which was played here in the rain, South Fork was trailing Smithtown East 6-2 with a minute and a half to go until halftime before goals by Charlie Corwin and Jack Cooper — on a breakaway after winning the ensuing face-off — pulled the home team to within two at the break, during which Matt Babb, South Fork’s coach, asked his charges, “Who wants it more? You or them?” Clearly, at that point it was anybody’s game.
As the third period began, it seemed that, indeed, the Islanders wanted it more. Luca Lattanzio put a shot by the Bulls’ goalie in the first minute of play, and seven minutes later he scored again, to tie the score at 6-6. Midway through the period, a steal by Cooper and yet another goal by Lattanzio made it 7-6 South Fork, immensely cheering the umbrellaed crowd.
The visitors netted a goal from in close that dribbled under the stick of the sophomore goalie, Ollie Edson, to tie it up again midway through the period, but a half-minute later Corwin wrested the lead back, at 8-7, and, thanks to a subsequent big save by Edson, it was 8-7 South Fork going into the final quarter.
Thinley Edwards got the first shot off in the fourth, which was parried, and the Bulls then cashed in, on a head-high shot from about 12 yards out that zipped over Edson’s stick. Soon after, a Smithtown East shooter who had snuck inside beat Edson one-on-one, putting the Islanders in the hole again, at 9-8.
Cooper won the face-off, after which Isaiah Lattanzio and Corwin, for a second time, tried mightily to tie the count, but could not, after which the visitors tacked on another to go up 10-8. Forty-nine seconds later, Corwin, assisted by Cooper, who had won another face-off, made it 10-9. There was plenty of time left, more than six minutes, but the Islanders, as had been the case at Riverhead two days before, could not quite get it done.
With 1 minute and 18 seconds left, South Fork got the turnover it wanted, a timeout was called, and the players broke out of the huddle with Babb and his assistant, Jaron Greenidge, shouting, “One-two-three finish!” In the final seconds, Luca Lattanzio swept a hard shot toward the lower left of the visitors’ cage, but the ball bounded off the post, and the winner’s goalie outran Isaiah Lattanzio to the end line as time ran out.
South Fork was to have played at 3-7 Walt Whitman yesterday. Huntington (8-2) and South Fork are to play at Southampton High School, where the team is based, tomorrow at 4 p.m. The Islanders are to play at 10-0 Half Hollow Hills Tuesday, and next Thursday, Brentwood (0-8) is to play here at 4:30.
As of Monday, South Fork was 4-4 in divisional play and was 6-4 over all.