Third time not so charming: Northport tries to beat Massapequa three years in a row for L.I.C., loses 9-8
It was the miracle that wasn’t.
In the Long Island Championship, the Northport Lady Tiger lacrosse team came back from a six-goal deficit in regulation capped by a goal from freshman Kate Atkinson with less than three minutes to play — only to lose the game in sudden death overtime 9-8 at Adelphi University in Garden City.
Massapequa Lady Chief Caitlyn Dorman scored with less than 20 seconds remaining in the first overtime period to win the L.I.C. and deny Northport its fourth straight Long Island Championship as well as a chance to compete for their third New York State title.
The Lady Tigers were 17-2 this year and they had handled Massapequa (11-5) the two previous years to win the L.I.C., but the Lady Chiefs came out of the gate on fire, determined to stop that streak.
Jessica Giller scored two minutes into the game for Massapequa on a free position opportunity and the flood gates were open. Allison Pertullo took a nifty feed from Bridget Valentine a minute later, and it was 2-0 Massapequa, and when Giller beat Tiger goalkeeper Megan Morris at 4:24 of the first half, it became an almost unfathomable 7-1 lead for the Chiefs.
But Northport, as everyone knows, is made of championship stuff — and they started to chip away. They got two goals in the final moments of the half — both by Kennedy Radziul and the score was 7-3 at the break.
Radziul opened the second half scoring in the first minute and the momentum was still firmly on the Tigers’ side. Emma McLam dodged her way through traffic and slipped one past GK Christina Fredella to cut the deficit to two and the Lady Tigers sideline was delirious, sensing what they thought was inevitable.
With the score 8-6 in favor of Massapequa, Northport’s Payson Hedges, who will attend Adelphi in the fall, took on three defenders with nine minutes to go and zing on past Fredella from close range. Atkinson would complete the comeback on a curl play, taking a brilliant lead pass from Radziul to tie the score at eight. On to overtime.
After Atkinson bounced a ball just wide that would have won the game, Northport turned the ball over and committed a turnover. Dorman was awarded a free position opportunity from 10 yards away to Morris’s stick side. Dorman bounced it in and Massapequa captured its first ever Long Island Championship.
