Sachem North Narrowly Beats Smithtown East

With the bad taste of the loss to West Islip still in their mouths, Sachem North's boys lacrosse team overcame a sluggish first three quarters to beat Smithtown West 8-6 Thursday at Fred Fusaro Alumni Stadium.

After losing Tuesday to West Islip, Sachem (6-1 overall, 5-1 Division I) made adjustments on offense, forcing at least three touches before any shots were taken. Its run and gun style didn’t work as well against the Lions.

Against the Bulls (4-3, 2-3), however, a more passive and conservative approach proved to be ineffective early on as well. Couple that with the fact that Smithtown East played its most complete game of the season and things were interesting from the get-go.

Both teams only exchanged one goal in the first quarter, but opened up things moderately in the second quarter with a 4-4 tie at halftime, and 5-5 score after three.

It wasn’t until the fourth quarter when Brandon Gamblin scored his second of the game, and Dalton Crossan scored 37 seconds later with 10:01 remaining, did Sachem separate itself on the field.

“Not until coach said we have to start scoring and driving is when our offense started clicking,” said Gamblin, who led all scorers with three goals, and had one goal disallowed for being in the crease in the fourth quarter. “We’re not a sit-down slow-pace offense. We have a high caliber player at every spot in our starting and second lines.”

Vincent Ferraro, one of six different goal scorers for the Bulls, kept Smithtown in the game with a goal to make it 7-6 with 8:11 left, but Gamblin scored a final insurance goal  at 5:09 to cap the scoring.

“We still had that left over taste in our mouths from the West Islip game,” Sachem coach Jay Mauro said. “We came out of the gate slow and Smithtown played well. Guys were at a loss earlier this week, but they’ll bounce back. That’s the nature of lacrosse.”

The Bulls held their heads high after Thursday’s loss. Coach Jason Lambert told his team they just held the 16th ranked team in the nation to its lowest offensive output of the season.

“All year we were looking to play four quarters,” he said. “The kids gave it there all and played their hearts out for four quarters. It was the first time this year we’ve played with that type of intensity it takes to compete against teams at this level.”

Sachem will play Sachem East on Saturday, while Smithtown plays West Islip Monday. 

Sachem: Brandon Gamblin (3g, 1a), Jack Gannon (2g), Dalton Crossan (1g), Michael Andreassi (1g, 1a), Cody Petillo (1a) and Tim Lang (1a). Saves: Gerald Logan 12.

Smithtown East: Will Hoffmann (1g), Matt Simeti (1g), Gary Watson (1g), Matt Hobby (1g), Vinny Ferraro (1g, 1a), Cole Andersen (1g, 1a) and Ryan Desimone (3a). Saves: Brian Balkam 13.