Ward Melville, which earlier this season knocked Yorktown out of the unbeaten ranks, just did the same thing to West Islip.
The Patriots picked up a stunning 8-7 overtime win.
Ward Melville won it on a goal by Rich Hurley shortly after the Patriots won the opening faceoff of overtime. Ward Melville had forced OT in dramatic fashion as Army-bound Cody Ferraro scored with seven seconds remaining in regulation.
West Islip has been ranked No. 1 in the LaxLessons.com Top 25 regional rankings every week this season, including in the latest rankings, which were released today.
What does all this mean as far as the upcoming playoffs are concerned? Let’s hear your thoughts.
For a rundown of today’s scores and highlights, click here.
Posted In: Long Island lacrosse
[…] Ward Melville 8, West Islip 7, OT […]
Great win, and great confidence booster for Yorktown.
Should be a hell of a state playoff.
Beating Bronxville is a confidence builder for Yorktown? Am I missing something??
I told Joe weeks ago for Yorktown to gain some confidence, or better yet, for many of their fans to gain confidence, a lot of it would depend on how Melville did vs. West Islip.
Well, I think this one proves there are no untouchables. This is not three years ago, or five years ago. The gap between the elite and everyone else has shrunk a lot more than we thought. Sure, Melville is an all-time legendary program, but most everyone would agree this is not a vintage Melville team.
It makes me think that if Yorktown does get to the state semifinals, they will have more than a legitimate shot against whomever they face. Considering Yorktown has traditionally gotten better as every season has progressed I would say that will be some game, no matter who they potentially play.
Observer – I think.. Lax might mean the fact that WM beat WI? (and ‘Town played WM close and may face WI in semis?) just a guess..
Oh I get it now. Thanks.
Well it proves that West Islip, ranked #1 in the nation and the team which Yorktown is predicted to face in the playoffs, is beatable. I personally thought they would end the season undefeated and win states. It also proves that WM is better than most thought so Yorktown shouldn’t feel too down about losing to them.
Way to flip flop Syracuse. A few hours ago you said even if Marr and all the assistants were playing they couldn’t beat West Islip. Your full of it!
Just got back from WM-WI. Great HS lacrosse game. Honestly, I thought it was over when WI went up 5-2 at halftime. But WM stuck with their game plan. Key was the best defence I ever saw vs. Nickie Galasso. He was held to one goal!
Observer,
Get a grip. A few hours ago Ward melville had not just beaten West Islip. And most everyone in the tri-state area felt Yorktown would be a serious underdog against West Islip. Any time you want to compare brain pans man, you just let me know.
Was @ the game. Great grit by WM and defensive effort to contain Galasso. WI made some big mental errors. Here is the interesting thing going forward – WI really doesn’t play anyone after WM, Yorktown, and Chaminade. Their SOS is horrible compared to MIIA team and other teams on LI. They should fall by a lot in the rankings.
In a formula-based ranking system they may, but if you go by subjectivity, word of mouth and basic common sense, West Islip will be a top 3 team in the state regardless of who they play for the rest of the regular season.
Just got back from St. A’s/Chaminade. Joe, this is the St. Anthony’s team you talked about the preseason and mentioned may be back in your preview earlier today. Unstoppable offense, unselfish play. It was fun to watch honestly.
We really broke it open in the second quarter – nice work on FO’s and GB’s. I think it was 8-4 at the half. Then we went on a good run in the third quarter to pull away even more.
Lefty assassin Willy Manny had 4 G’s. Tommy Schreiber 2-3, Dante Fantoni 3-2.
Joe I’ve enjoyed reading our boys profiles on your recruiting section.
Wonderful site. I know I’ve said it before. There’s nothing like this out there. Keep up the tremendous efforts.
I love when someone refers to a friend on a team as an “assassin.” That’s awesome. CROP is my “assassin.”
Excellent point on WI SOS, Taz. Today proved it for sure. Why don’t they play a tougher schedule? Guess Craig likes to pile up the wins and stay on top in the rankings?
Cuse I hear ya. But just asking with no ax to grind – how can you tell how WI is or isn’t since they don’t play too many good teams?
Ever realize how many s’s there are in assassin????? 😉
You want to hear something ridiculous?
Niskayuna has allowed 23 goals in 12 games.
Ummm, like 2-3 comments just got dropped here. This is not becoming censored like Laxpower I hope!
Sorry – now they’re back. Must be a system glitch.
Taz – May have been a caching issue. But no, certainly no censoring, and certainly not someone with the intelligent and interesting insights you provide. The one person we have to censor though is our very own veritable loose cannon Syracuse. But that’s only on occasion.
That’s right. Send the Web police after me. I can see CROP sitting outside my jail cell with his flock, all wearing T-shirts that say “Free ‘CUSE” ….I’m persecuted for not liking to deal with nonsense. I see how it is.
Joe and staff –
Great coverage today. You were on top of all the action and it was fun to follow all the results as they came in tonight. The readers of this blog do a tremendous job with their comments and insights. You can tell how much they care and know about the game. I spent about five hours today on Laxlessons and could have spent the whole day.
Kudos!
Well said Cradler. Joe – I’d say your crushing the competition but that’s not really true. There s no competition because no one can do what you do, Joe. As the PA announcer said about you at the Murph Cup “Nobody does it better.” So true.
Ya gotta cut Cuse a little slack – remember he DOES hang in the netherlands up there! 😉
Chaminade has “Town on Sat and “Set next Tues – does anyone know if Chaminade has ever lost 3 in a row? (Not saying it will happen – only that it is a possibility)
Hey Joe, I know this is a west Islip WM story but you didnt put the St A’s , Cham game anywhere. Big win for the Friars, 13-7. Yesterday I predicted 10-6 St A’s, pretty close. Looks like the Friars are on a roll now, still one more big game to play. What are your thoughts ?
Cuse if your ever in a jail cell were baking u a cake wiht a nail file in it..or raising money for your bail…or driving a mac truck through your cell somehow…of course the crop would have matching shirts and would be chanting the entire time.. “You cant stop us”
then we would deliver you to charlie murphy field on saturday to watch us knock off chaminade.
CROP,
That should be the horn sound on the monster truck. Press on it and it bellows out “you can’t stop us!”
Catholic showdown –
While there was no specific story on the St. A’s-Chaminade game, we talked about it throughout the night on various comments. We did get a record number of comments for one night last night (more than 120), so you may have missed them.
But I’d be happy to give my thoughts. At the outset of the season, I couldn’t have been more impressed with St. Anthony’s. In fact, we had the Friars No. 2 in our preseason Top 25.
The Friars’ offense, led by Pirnceton-bound Tom Schreiber, Dante Fantoni and Will Manny, is as explosive as any I’ve seen of late. When they get the ball, they score.
The problem early in the season was St. Anthony’s defense was developing and not yet where it needed to be. The defense, led by Towson-bound Michael Keane, has made a great deal of strides.
St. Anthony’s is at the top of its game right now at just the point in the season you want to be too.
Okay obviously its clear WI lost and it was an amazing win for WM. Everyone is going to take this the wrong way (i’m not trying to knock WM), but WI had an awful game. They were sloppy and just not themselves. It was a different WI team then usually, they just had a bad day. Everyone does sometimes. As for the whole they don’t have a hard enough schedule, they have to play teams in there own class most of the season so how much harder could it get?? They scrimmaged St. Anthony’s and played Darien, CT (NL) , Massapequa (NL), Chaminade (NL), and Ridgewood, NJ (NL). I mean this honestly and I want your imput what teams would you like to see them play and do they even have room in their schedule. Mr. Craig is an amazing coach and is not the type of person who just looks for wins. West Islip is still a strong team. Are they the best – maybe/maybe not? that’s your own opinion. All I am saying is that they are a talented team and one lost isn’t bad just everyone excepts sooo much from WI. My thoughts: I believe West Islip got a little too cocky and overlooked WM. I was at the game and it was clear that WM wanted to win. The pressure is now off of WI to be the undefeated team. Try being a west islip lacrosse player they face a tremendous amount of pressure trying to keep up the reputation. Now they can just play the game that they love without having the worry of being undefeated. Also it was an eye opener. They know they are beatable now so they are back to being focused. My hopes are they don’t forget that and will play to win. They now have motivation again. Something to work for. I still think they make it to states. Still one of the best. Again not trying to take ANYTHING away from WM, i was just saying…… any thoughts??
Well said. I didn’t want to say anything last night either because it would seem like sour grapes. Credit Ward Melville. They deserved to win. But I do think we played our worst game of the season and never got untracked. Maybe they were reading and believing all their press clippings. Maybe this will teach them all that matters is what is done on the field. So I think the timing could be good for a loss. Far enough before playoffs to learn from and move forward.
No one thought we were gonna be good this year. We go from loosing to lindenhurst to beat WI. We’re making a state run. Everyone keep your eyes open for WM next year….Just a suggestion