West Islip Edges Hills in Double OT Girls Lax Playoff Thriller

A season to remember came to a heartbreaking close Monday for the Half Hollow Hills girls lacrosse team. 

Hills, in the playoffs for the first time in school history, lost in double overtime 12-11 to West Islip in the Suffolk Class A quarterfinals.

West Islip senior attack Loren Ziegler scored the final two goals, including the game-winner to lead the third-seeded Lions past sixth-seeded Hills. 

“It was crazy, the whole game…intense both ways,” Hills coach Lori Horbach said.

“The girls had a fantastic season, 11-3, and we have 15 10th graders on our team so for the future we are looking up and for our seniors, they were the ones who kept this team alive and kept them together,” she added.

Hills beat the Lions 11-9 earlier this month and Hills came out firing on Monday at West Islip High School, racing out to a 4-1 lead behind two goals from sophomore midfielder Julia DiMaria. West Islip head coach Joe Nicolosi called a timeout and Lions picked it up from there. 

Three Lions goals--from Kelsey Allen, Erin Byrnes and Erin Collins-- in a span of three minutes tied the game at four and West Islip would take a 6-4 lead into the half. 

Hills, made up of girls from both district high schools, wasn’t going anywhere, though.

The second half was a back-and-forth slugfest with the teams trading goals until the finish. Hills senior attack Ariel O'Shea scored all three of her goals in the second stanza. With just more than two minutes to play, DiMaria, who finished with four goals and two assists, knotted the score at 10, where it would stand at the end of regulation.

DiMaria, off an assist from Nichole Doran, put Hills on the board first in overtime, but West Islip answered back 12 seconds later with a tally from Ziegler. 

With fans on both sides of the field out of their seats and less than a half minute to go in double overtime, Collins fired a pass to a cutting Ziegler near Hills' net. Ziegler never took possession of the ball, which was deflected in front, but it found the back of net behind Hills goaltender Jillian Rocco. 

“We played our game,” said Hills senior captain Jackie DiMaria, who scored the first goal of the game. “We just had a couple mistakes that led to the loss.”

Gina Dolisi, Alexis Maffucci and Cara Pascarella also tallied goals for Hills.

Emotions were raw on the Hills sideline after the game, but when the team looks back on a historic season, including a first round playoff win over Sachem North, it will find plenty to be proud of.

“It was great to be part of this whole season,” Jackie DiMaria said. “Our team just had so much great chemistry.”