Westhampton Beach Boys Lacrosse Loses First Playoff Game In Five Years At Harborfields

The Westhampton Beach boys lacrosse team had a penchant for playing close games this season, particularly against strong opponents. In what was a 14-game season that was basically played over a month, the Hurricanes played five games that were decided by two goals or less, and they happened to be 3-2 in those contests.

With not much in terms of ability separating the seven teams that qualified for the Suffolk County Class B playoffs, Westhampton Beach knew it was going to have to put that experience in close games to good use starting Wednesday, June 9, when the fifth-seeded Hurricanes played at fourth-seeded Harborfields.

While the ’Canes — playing in their first playoff game since 2016 — may have lost, 13-7, to the Tornadoes, the final score was not an indication of how close the two teams were for much of the game. Having not trailed by any more than three goals at any point of the game, Jack Moloney, who finished with a team-high three goals, brought Westhampton Beach within one of Harborfields’ lead at 7-6 with 7:58 remaining in the third quarter.

But that would be as close as the ’Canes would get to overtaking the lead. Harborfields scored six unanswered goals from midway through the third until 2:32 remaining in the game to seal the victory and advance to the county semifinals against top-seeded Comsewogue, which will be played Saturday.

“Coming into this game today we challenged our team, challenged our seniors, and said if we play as hard as we can, if we leave everything that we have on the field, then that’s all we can ask of you guys as players,” Westhampton Beach head coach Drew Peters said after the game. “And I really commend our players for doing that. Obviously, not easy to say right now coming off that loss, but we came out and we battled.”

Peters remarked at how hot it was; with temperatures above 90 degrees, the game was played under a modified heat alert, which required water breaks after each six minutes of play, and which led to a somewhat longer game than usual.

But the heat was just part of the issues for the ’Canes, Peters said. Having a hard time “getting over the hump,” as he put it, in some of the close games with Mount Sinai, Islip and Bayport-Blue Point, which wound up being a three-goal loss, came down to his team’s overall youth and inexperience, coupled with some key injuries.

“We had some guys coming off from football not being able to get healthy. One of our starting defenders got hurt probably about three weeks ago and he battled to get back and it just couldn’t happen,” Peters explained. “So it was really that next-man-up and I’m proud of the guys that stepped up, that got on the field and played and did their part. We just got to keep getting better.”

While it was something literally every team across the country had to deal with, what can’t be forgotten was the time lost last year with the season being canceled due to COVID, and the trickle down effect it had on each program, Westhampton Beach included. For the ’Canes, many of the sophomores who would have gotten valuable varsity playing experience last year didn’t and instead got it as juniors this year.

“It was phenomenal to get the season in. As phenomenal as it was, it was a very challenging season,” Peters said. “Not just for us but for every team out there. It was game, off, game, off, and a lot of preparation we do in between games was just crammed in. So there was a lot of maintaining and correcting, whereas a lot of things we could add some instruction and implementing and doing a lot of new things. And we did that, it was just really hard to do that, but I'm happy that our guys got a season in.”

Losing the team’s first playoff game in five years should only fuel his team going forward, Peters said.

“It gives a lot of the younger guys, the underclassmen, a little motivation to remember the feeling of today, and the offseason — play in the summer, play in the fall, get better in the winter — and we come back, hopefully with some guys that have a lot of playing experience next year,” he said “We have a lot juniors who will become seniors and we get going again.”