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By Steven Zaitz

The schools are separated by about six miles. Their boys lacrosse teams — by much more.

The top-seeded Northport Tigers showed why they are reigning Long Island champions, as they doubled up and dominated the number four-seeded Huntington Blue Devils 12-6 on Thursday, May 26. Northport advances to the Suffolk County Championship game against the Smithtown East Bulls.

After a sleepy and goal-less first eight minutes, Northport even spotted their arch-rivals to the west a one goal lead, as Huntington’s strategy of locking up Northport’s superstar Senior Attacker Michael Meyer seemed to work — initially. But Meyer would find the key.

He exploded for four goals, all of which came in the first half, including a buzzer-beating rocket with two seconds to go before the halftime buzzer. Meyer also had assists on four other goals — a standout performance in a huge playoff game.

Freshman attacker Jack Deliberti had three goals, Jacob Starcke two goals and roving long-stick Midfielder Andrew Miller scored two in less than a minute in the third quarter that restored a five goal Tiger lead and unofficially broke the Blue Devils’ back.

Northport played their usual brand of ferocious defense, forcing Huntington to the outside and lower percentage shots and Tiger Goalkeeper Luke Lamendola registered an eye-popping 16 saves.

It was a complete team effort if there ever was one, and it enables Northport to re-visit neutral site East Islip Middle School to play Smithtown East — the very field they beat Syosset 12-11 to capture the Long Island Title last summer.

“All week in practice, we went over situations where I, or someone else, is locked off and what we were going to do,” Meyer said, who now has 43 goals on the season. “So, we ran one of the plays we worked on, and I was able to get the ball with a short stick defending me.”

He made the short stick dearly pay.

From sharp angles and small windows at which to shoot, Meyer flung balls past Huntington Goalie SammyMac Arner with deadly accuracy over the course of the first 24 minutes.

“Michael is a special player,” said Head Coach Larry Cerasi. “He does everything a coach could ask for and then some. He’s not the most ‘rah rah’ type of guy, but he leads by example and has shown some of our younger guys the way to success.”

One of those younger guys is the ninth grader Deliberti, who like Meyer, has curly brown locks of hair sticking out of the back of his helmet. He scored the first goal of the second half off of a brilliant feed from Meyer,

“When I first came up to the varsity team, I had a little bit of a chip on my shoulder, being guarded by juniors and seniors,” Deliberti said. “But Mike has really took me under his wing and has showed me how to be a varsity player.”

Meyer was also showing everybody in attendance why he is complete superstar package.  After Huntington staged a mini-uprising and cut the Tiger lead to 7-4 midway through the third period, Meyer found Tim Kirchner in the middle of the field, who shoveled it over to Miller on the right. The junior Army-commit beat Arner from 20 yards away.  Ten seconds later, Meyer hit Miller on a beautiful diagonal pass right in front of the Devil net. Miller faked high and went low to scoop it past Arner. It made the score 9-4 with the third quarter quickly melting away. The final horn was more than a quarter away, but the game was over.

“That was a big swing right there,” Miller said. “Huntington had just pulled within three and I think it stopped their momentum.”

With a suffocating second half defense and Lamendola snuffing out anything that leaked through, the Tigers ticket to East Islip was punched.

Senior Jacob Starcke scored two in the fourth quarter and Deliberti finished the scoring when he rattled the ball off both posts and behind Arner for Tiger goal number 12. Northport had effectively taken Huntington’s Big Four attackers of Aidan McNulty, Robbie Smith, Liam Lennon and Chris Maichin out of the game with constant defensive pressure. This quartet combined for 183 total point in 2022. Also, part of the winning formula, was Tyler Kuprianchik’s customary dominance at the ‘X’. The future Penn State Nittany Lion won 71% of his faceoffs against Yale commit Anthony Annunziata. Annunziata was second to Kupianchik in faceoff winning percentage in the regular season in Suffolk I.

“Our defense is not only incredibly strong and athletic, but we are also a cerebral bunch,” said Defensive Coach and Northport alum Billy Cordts. “Quinn Reynolds and Andrew Miller are incredibly dynamic. Jack Sandrib and Jack Breckling are experienced and very strong players. Will Flynn is not flashy but does it all, plus Pat Sweeney, who is an incredible athlete. All of these guys made it a very difficult day for their best players (Smith and McNulty).”

Cordts, class of 2003, had to manage some adversity through out the course of the season. But the Tigers have proven to be extraordinarily deep in 2022.

“We lost some starters to injury and didn’t miss a beat. Dan Eagers and Jon Alfiero went down, and they are damn good players. We are all about team and we play for each other and willing to do the dirty work. That’s what enables us to dominate.”

They’ll need to do so for one more game to repeat as Suffolk County Lacrosse League A Champions — against a school that also sits about six miles away, but to the east. Will this one be more competitive? Lacrosse fan across Suffolk County are about to find out.