Boys lacrosse: Waves hang tough against powerhouse West Islip

There’s nothing like playing a perennial Suffolk County championship contender to gauge where you are as a team.

Riverhead traveled to West Islip on Wednesday for their first league game. Even though it was only the fourth day outside for the Blue Waves since the season started, they showed spurts of high-level play that left fans wanting to see more.

West Islip (1-0) emerged victorious, 11-7 over Riverhead (0-1 conference, 0-2 overall) but it wasn’t an easy victory by any stretch. A late comeback nearly unseated the Lions as the Blue Waves cut a commanding first half lead of 7-2 to 9-7 late in the fourth quarter.

“If we won that game, we’d be right up there with USA hockey in 1980,” a very pleased Riverhead head coach Vic Guadagnino said.

Dalton Lucas scored his first varsity goal to start the fourth quarter bringing the Lions lead down to two, 8-6. After West Islip answered, Austin Fitzpatrick found a streaking Ben Weir who found the back of the net, keeping the lead at just two.

It was the first true sign of life from the Blue Waves who seemed almost defeated in the first half. A game that was dominated by the Lions in terms of shots on goal and time of possession, didn’t seem out of reach. There was aggression on ground balls, shots began to fly from all over and John Roca was out there making saves with attack men that were literally face to face with him.

“I thought Roca was incredible in the goal today,” Guadagnino said.

He finished with 13 saves. But ultimately, easy attempts at the goal as a result of costly turnovers crushed any legitimate chance to win.

“We’ll never play mistake-free lacrosse,” Guadagnino said. “I don’t expect it. I want us to play fast and take chances but we do need to try to limit those mistakes.”

As it stands, the Blue Waves are still young–especially in front. Chris Flood, who scored his third goal of the season, is a sophomore. Lucas is a freshman. The Blue Waves are a midfield-dominant team and it showed against the Lions.

Mark Andrejack had his second consecutive hat-trick and Fitzpatrick added a goal of his own to go along with his three assists.

But by far, one midfielder stood out more than anyone else: long stick middie Blake Carrara.

“Blake was the best player on the field flat out,” Guadagnino said. “He was all over the field inflicting pain. I literally heard someone scream in pain because of him.”

Carrara finished with six ground balls and a ridiculous 10 takeaways.

Though Riverhead has started the season 0-2, they’ve lost to two great teams in Sachem East and West Islip. It’s still early in the season. The potential for this team is sky high.