West Islip girls lacrosse's Mia Nicolosi scores OT winner to beat Smithtown West

Joe Nicolosi was a proud father and a proud coach all in one moment.

Mia Nicolosi, the third daughter to play lacrosse for her father at West Islip, scored the winning goal in overtime in a game that felt like more than just another regular-season contest. West Islip has defeated Smithtown West in the Suffolk Class B finals in each of the last two seasons and in their first meeting this year, West Islip knocked off Smithtown West yet again with a 6-5 victory in Suffolk Division II girls lacrosse action on Thursday.

Mia scored off an assist from Ava Obloj with 45 seconds left in overtime. Mia received the pass near the net from Obloj and in one sweeping motion, she finished the goal and the celebration was on.

“I just really wanted to get it,” Mia said. “I was excited for this game and I just wanted to win. I want to go far with this team and these girls and we did amazing today.”

“Not only because she’s my daughter, but that’s every kid’s dream, to score a goal like that and to have that feeling,” Joe said. “I played lacrosse in college and that’s one of the best feelings you can have, it’s special. And obviously because she’s my daughter, it’s even more special.”

Mia had two goals as West Islip had four different goal scorers. The Lions’ defense played a crucial role in the victory, led by Makenna Gagliardi’s 11 saves. Midfielder Francesca Tofano, who scored a goal, also had a key caused turnover and ground ball on a free-position attempt with 2:23 left in overtime. That defensive play created the possession leading to Mia’s goal.

“We take a lot of pride in our defense,” Gagliardi said. “Our goal every season is six goals or less and we’ll win the game and we hold ourselves true to that. We have a really strong defense and we proved that.”

West Islip (8-2, 7-2) scored the game’s first two goals before Smithtown West (8-2, 7-2) scored the final two goals of the first half.

Ashley Mannella scored off an assist from Alyssa Lorefice with 32 seconds left in the third quarter to give Smithtown West a 3-2 lead. Carly Obloj and Sarah Flynn scored goals off assists from Ava Obloj, Carly’s older sister, 32 seconds apart to give West Islip a 4-3 lead with 9:26 left in the fourth quarter.

Jolie Schiavo (Smithtown West) and Ava Obloj traded goals before Kate Theofield scored the final goal of regulation for Smithtown West to tie the score at 5 with 2:33 left in the fourth quarter.

“As we were warming up, this had the feeling of a county championship game,” Mia Nicolosi said. “We really took it seriously in the locker room and gave everything.”

“We knew after we beat them in counties, they’d want to come back for revenge but we didn’t let them this game,” Ava Obloj said. “We held strong and came out on top.”