By Steven Zaitz
The Smithtown West girls lacrosse team won its first Suffolk County Class B championship in program history on May 31, beating Harborfields 12-9.
In the entire slate of final games hosted at home by Smithtown West High School, senior Kate Theofield scored five goals to lead the top-seeded Bulls, who burst out to 4-0 lead within the first seven minutes of the game. Theofield had the first three of these and sophomore attacker Kaitlyn Mennella added another.
Despite the early hole, the third-seeded Tornados did not let this one spin out of control.
Freshman midfielder Nora Ruddy took advantage of a free position opportunity and got Harborfields on the board with four minutes left in the opening quarter.
Two Harborfields goals apiece by freshman Jamie Medico and senior Bella Monteleone made the score 6-5 in favor of West with a little more than four minutes remaining in the half. At the break, Harborfields had made this title game a competitive one.
With Smithtown West leading 7-6 midway through the third quarter, Harborfields Goalkeeper Olivia Eusanio robbed Vanessa Pollina from directly in front of the goal mouth and again on a free position shot, keeping the Tornado deficit at a skinny goal and giving the team in green from Greenlawn possession of the ball.
But after some sloppy play, West goalkeeper Maribella Marciano picked up a ground ball behind her net and started a breakout. Kaitlyn Mennella’s sister, junior Ashley Mennella, finished it with her second goal of the game. Kaitlyn would score less than a minute later to make it 9-6 with 4:05 remaining in the third period. But Smithtown West, especially Theofield, was not done.
She scored two goals to close out the quarter, one via free position and the other off a nifty diagonal pass from Ashely Mennella. The pair of third period tallies were Theofield’s fourth and fifth of the game, made the score 11-6, and effectively sealed the game – and the Suffolk crown – for the Bulls. After her fifth goal, she leaped high in the air behind the net and let out a joyful, primal scream, stoked that she put her team up by five.
Smithtown West (16-2), after losing in this Suffolk title game the previous in 2023 and 2024, finally knocked down the county’s championship door. They played Garden City (17-2), Nassau’s Class B champion on Tuesday, June 3 for the Long Island Championship at Adelphi University, which just so happens to be in Garden City.
Ruddy and Medico scored three goals apiece for Harborfields, who failed to make the playoffs in 2024, before reaching the finals. They finish the year at 11-7.
–Photos By Steven Zaitz
