MGS girls lax hopeful ahead of playoff rematch
It’s the rematch that the Mattituck/Greenport/Southold girls lacrosse team has been waiting for in a year — Babylon in the Suffolk County Class D final.
The Tuckers have experienced mixed results against their rivals in the championship game.
In 2023, they enjoyed the thrill of victory behind a 12-6 win over the Panthers in Mastic.
Last year, they suffered the agony of defeat in an 11-8 loss in Longwood.
On Saturday, May 31, at 9 a.m., second-seeded Mattituck (9-8) hopes to duplicate the feeling of two years ago when it meets with first-seeded Babylon (8-8) at Smithtown West High School.
Junior midfielders Page Kellershon and Gianna Calise, and junior midfielder-forward Claire McKenzie — who were freshmen on that championship side — are optimistic that they will prevail.
The Tuckers enter the game with three wins in their last four matches, including a 19-6 win over Center Moriches in the play-in match on May 21.
Last year’s loss is seared into the minds of many players.
Asked what the feeling was like, McKenzie replied: “Oh, it’s definitely horrible. We went into it thinking that we were going to beat them, but it ended up not going as well as we thought it would. If we could beat them again, it would just feel wonderful, especially after losing in basketball too. It’s like revenge.”
Babylon defeated the Tuckers in the Class B basketball finals, 57-22, on March 2.
“I want that as bad as anything in the world right now,” added McKenzie, who scored four times against Center Moriches.
And when the Tuckers secured the crown two years ago?
“It was the best feeling in the world,” she said.
As freshmen in the 2023 final, Calise recorded two goals and one assist. Kellershon added a goal and two assists.
“Me and my friends always tend to look back at that game, when we were freshmen,” Calise said. “We really want that experience again. It’s just such a memory for all of us.”
Kellershon, who finished with six goals against Center Moriches, agreed.
“I definitely say this is our year,” she said. “All of us have been definitely up this year. For us to take that win would be extremely exciting.”
The game boasts some of the county’s best players.
Kellershon leads the Tuckers with 52 goals and 28 assists for 80 points, followed by Calise (39-20-59), McKenzie (35-12-47), Grace Quinn (21-23-44) and Olivia Zehil (25-9-34).
Junior midfielder Lily Krollage, who scored five goals in last year’s final, leads Babylon with 45 goals and eight assists.
Mattituck head coach Logan McGinn trains several Panthers players on his club team, so he is familiar with their strengths and weaknesses.
“It’s a love-hate relationship [from] a coaching perspective, training the enemy, but I like us,” he said. “I always say, ‘We are the best team on the field, until someone proves us differently.'”
McGinn said that it was difficult rewatching last year’s final on video.
“I hated going back and watching that game — [the] little things I could have done, what the girls could have done,” he said. “We’ve had this one marked on our calendar. It’s a little bit of a rubber match.”
Babylon beat Center Moriches on May 8, 8-4. The Panthers haven’t played since a 16-5 home loss to Shoreham-Wading River on May 17, which snapped their three-game winning streak.
The winner will meet the Nassau County (Section VIII) champion at Adelphi University in the Long Island championship game in Garden City, on June 3 at 11:30 a.m. That winner will reach meet the Section I winner in the regional final at Lakeland High School Saturday, June 7, at 10 a.m.
In a scheduling anomaly, Mattituck did not play its Class D rivals during the regular season for the second year in a row, although Center Moriches and Babylon met.
McGinn noted that the Tuckers haven’t faced the Panthers in the regular season for three consecutive seasons.
“It’s just the way it works,” he said. “We’re always seeded right next to each other. Somehow, we get left out. But that’s okay. It gives us a good opportunity where they don’t know anything about us. I’ve been watching Babylon since the beginning of the year. We’ve been preparing. They’re a good team. It should be a fun game.”
