Hoping for payback, Tuckers boys lax squad falls to Babylon

Everything that could go wrong pretty much did for the Mattituck/Greenport/Southold boys lacrosse team on Monday afternoon, particularly in the first half. The Tuckers lost faceoffs — they lost possession — and they lost their mark on defense.

It all added up to a nine-goal halftime deficit as host Babylon recorded a 13-7 win in a Suffolk County Division II matchup.

“We didn’t show up,” said senior attacker Rocco Horton, who finished with a hat-trick.

“It was very disappointing, having to come out here on a Monday and get whupped,” senior midfielder Luke Weir said.

The game was a rematch of last year’s Class D county final. Babylon (6-4, 6-3) won the title on an 11-3 victory. Mattituck had visions of avenging that loss, but the Panthers had other ideas.

Babylon got a big boost from Brady Shaw, who won 80% of his faceoffs (16-of-20) against Trevor Fitzgerald and Weir.

The Tuckers (6-5, 4-5) were their own worst enemies. They committed 16 turnovers, many unforced, compared to the Panthers’ six.

Fitzgerald won the opening faceoff, and Henry Blair scored the first of his two goals, connecting from close range past goalie Kyle Wieland 1:27 into the contest.

“I definitely thought we should win this game scoring that first goal off the bat,” senior goaltender Andrew McKenzie said. “I thought that we were definitely going to stick with them the whole game. … A lot of the games we’ve had slow starts. We’ve got to fix that.”

Only 26 seconds later, Colin O’Brien equalized before adding a second tally at 4:26. The rest of the half was downhill for the visitors. Dom Kuhnia scored from the right side at 7:44. Kai Jankow recorded the first of his game-high five goals at 11:29. Corey Dellafranca closed out the quarter with two goals within a 29-second span for a 6-1 lead. 

“We just started sleeping on defense,” McKenzie said. “We didn’t have any slides … That just messed us up.”

Added head coach Jeff Hauser: “It’s tough. You can only prepare so much and go over their tendencies, what their plays are. You think you’re well prepared. When you get out there, it’s totally different. Everything on paper kind of goes into the wind, and you have to play real lacrosse. The first quarter, we did not play lacrosse. We kind of watched. We had no urgency. I could feel it coming off the bus when we were warming up.”

The second quarter was all Jankow, who scored four consecutive goals as Babylon surged to a 10-1 halftime advantage.

Mattituck bounced back in the second half, outscoring Babylon, 6-3.

“We woke up. But we shouldn’t have to wake up,” Horton said. “We’re a good team when we show up. If we’re proactive instead of reactive, we usually do really well.”

“If we came out with a better mindset and a little more pep in our step, and we played according to plan … I think the outcome of the game would have been a lot different,” added Weir.

Horton scored two goals in the third quarter. One came off an assist by McKenzie, who ran out of the goal area with the ball to midfield before spotting Horton.

“I looked up, and I saw that nobody was open, so I have to make a play,” McKenzie said.

Justin Fox and Nate Steinfeld also scored for Mattituck. Rafa Finnerty added three assists.

McKenzie made 16 saves to run his county-best total to 172, but he wasn’t helped by his defense.

“It’s no secret that Andrew is probably in the best Suffolk County lacrosse goalie,” Hauser said. “But when our defense gives up two-yard shots, one-on-one, not many goalies are going to save them. He let a couple of 15-yard bouncers in, which he’s usually all over. I know that he was a little down on himself. He definitely picked up in the second half.”

After hosting Shoreham-Wading River on Thursday at 4:30 p.m., the Tuckers will visit Center Moriches on Monday, May 5 at 4:30 p.m., which will determine whether they will reach the playoffs. Only two teams will qualify. Babylon (3-0 against Class D teams) clinched the top seed. Mattituck and Center Moriches are 1-1 apiece. Port Jefferson is 0-3.

“That’s our win-or-go home game,” McKenzie said. “We have to win that to make playoffs pretty much.”

“We’re going to make sure that that game starts out differently,” Weir said. “We cannot have this happening again.”