Kings Park boys lacrosse rallies past previously unbeaten West Islip

Down two with less than five minutes remaining, Kings Park boys lacrosse needed a spark.

The Kingsmen had just allowed three unanswered goals to undefeated West Islip to open the fourth quarter and found themselves trailing by one. But no game is ever over when senior captain Jack Salva is on the field.

Salva responded with a missile into the top left corner and scored another goal less than a minute later for Kings Park, which scored five fourth-quarter goals in an 11-9 comeback win at West Islip Tuesday.

“Every game so far, the fourth quarter has been our quarter,” Salva said. “Obviously we’re working on playing complete games, but in the fourth quarter we always find a way to come back and finish the game.”

A nine-goal fourth quarter, all scored in the final seven minutes, represented a back-and-forth game that saw five different lead changes as neither team led by more than two goals. Salva finished with a game-high seven points, including a game-high five goals.

Senior Chris Davis scored the go-ahead goal with 3:15 remaining before senior Billy Berhalter threaded a perfect feed to junior Matt Corrado to give Kings Park a 10-8 lead.

West Islip senior Derek Busking came alive in the fourth quarter, logging all four of his points which included a bruising goal through numerous defenders to cut Kings Park’s lead to one.

That’s when Kings Park FOGO Andrew Laviano showed how and why he’s so important to this team. The junior won his 19th faceoff — finishing 19-for-23 — to give Kings Park (10-1) possession and eventually an insurance goal from senior Luke Griffin off a great pass from junior Aidan Barbosa against an open net with 22 seconds left.

“I had to adapt to the faceoff guy and the refs,” Laviano said. “I’m able to do that with the help of my wings and by doing what I know I can do on the X.”

Junior goalie Nick Vicinanza controlled the cage to the tune of 18 saves, including 10 in the first half. Four of the first five goals by West Islip (10-1) — with three coming from junior Chase Busking — came courtesy of follow-up shots after a save from Vicinanza.

“Once we got the crease feeds locked down, it was wrapped from there,” Vicinanza said.

Laviano pointed to Kings Park’s desire to send a message that its only loss — an 8-7 result to Mount Sinai on April 17 — was simply a blip. Kings Park has won all three of its games since, including a huge win over East Islip

Signed by Salva, Laviano, Vicinanza and the rest of the Kingsmen, it’s safe to say: Message sent.