It’s hard to believe that the Mattituck/Greenport/Southold boys lacrosse program is just five years old with the way they played on the biggest stage in the Class C Suffolk County championship game on Wednesday at Stony Brook University.
The standing ovation from the Mattituck faithful following their 9-5 defeat to the first-seeded Babylon Panthers was well deserved.
It’s not often that such a young program makes it to a championship game but there they were in front of a huge crowd, competing with a storied Babylon program neck and neck until the final whistle. The score was just 4-3 in Babylon’s favor at the half.
“We came in and did exactly what we wanted to do,” Tuckers head coach John Amato said. “Offensively we didn’t get the edge we were looking for but it happens, they have a solid defense.”
The game plan going into the matchup was to play both goalies, so even though Robbie Kruszeski started the game and kept the Tuckers close with clutch saves, Amato stuck with what was agreed upon and stuck Alex Dunkin in the game. The Panthers however caught fire in the third and scored four unanswered goals.
“That was the plan and I stuck with it,” Amato said. “I owed it to the team to stick with the game plan. Could I have stuck with Robbie? Sure.”
Though the sophomore ended up coming back to the game, it was too little too late. The damage had already been done. The Panthers were just too good.
“We just came out flat in the third,” Amato said. “You just can do that against a good team.”
Dylan Marlborough won 16 out of 19 face-offs and with numbers like that, the Tuckers were in position to score more often than not. But goals were hard to come by and if anything it’s more a testament to the Babylon defense than anything else. They played like a well-built program.
“It’s just the start here in Mattituck,” Amato said. “We’re really building something here.”
Eighth-grader Max Kruszeski scored two goals for the Tuckers. Tim Schmidt, James Hoeg and Jeff Hauser scored the others.
“We only have two starters graduating,” Amato said. “There’s a lot more to accomplish with this group.”
