Northport Tigers bite Smithtown West Bulls
By Steven Zaitz
The Northport Tigers Boys Lacrosse team advanced to the Suffolk County Division I championship game with a hard-fought 9-6 win over Smithtown West this past Monday. They faced Ward Melville at Northport on Wednesday (results not available at press time). A win will give them a chance to take on the Nassau County Champion — Syosset or Farmingdale on June 19.
The Tigers were led by midfielders Tristan Triolo and Casey Fortunato both of whom had two goals, and got outstanding goaltending by Andrew Tittman, who recorded 15 saves on 21 shots. Troy Riley had two goals for the Bulls.
After Smithtown took a 2-1 lead midway through the first quarter, Northport exploded for three consecutive goals in a three-minute span to earn a 4-2 halftime lead.
“Our midfielders stepped up today,” Triolo said. “Against Smithtown East, our attackers scored most of the goals, but today it was the middies.”
Midfielder Jack Helrigel also chipped in with a goal, as did attackers Mike Meyer, Jim Atkinson, Ryan McCarthy and Drew Miller. Miller’s goal came midway through the fourth quarter and restored a two goal lead for Northport after the Bulls had two quick ones within a minute of each other, to cut the lead to one.
After Miller’s goal, Smithtown West asked the officials to check faceoff specialist Tyler Kuprianchik’s stick for illegal pocket depth — a rare challenge that turned out to be successful. The Bulls were awarded a two-minute man-up situation.
They failed to capitalize.
“That was a little disrespectful to the game, in my opinion,” Triolo said. “Tyler has been taking face-offs all game. Of course, his stick is going to be messed up. It didn’t really matter because they didn’t score anyway.”
Kuprianchik won 67% of his face-offs on the evening, providing precious extra possession time for the Tigers.
“Tyler was great, and Andrew (Tittman) was unbelievable in goal for us. He made all kinds of great saves,” Triolo said. “It was a great team win and now we get to play a home game for the County Championship. It’s crazy.”
The stakes get higher from here with county and Long Island Championship games in the offing, and with them, a new level of crazy.
