Alexandra Hopkins, Sydney Pappas lead Garden City to LI Class B girls lacrosse crown

For as long as Alexandra Hopkins and Sydney Pappas can remember, they’ve shared a lacrosse field together, scoring and assisting on too many goals to even count.

So it was fitting that on the first goal in their final game as high school students, Hopkins found Pappas for Garden City’s opening goal.

"We’re best friends on and off the field," Pappas said. "We know what each other is good at and to set each other up on that first goal, it was so nice scoring in the LIC game and getting the assist from Alex."

The scoring didn’t slow down much from there as Garden City beat West Babylon, 14-5, in the girls lacrosse Long Island Class B championship at Bethpage High School Saturday afternoon.

Hopkins had five goals and two assists, leading Garden City to its first Long Island championship since 2017.

"It’s just an amazing accomplishment," Hopkins said. "It’s a sense of fulfillment and I’m so proud of each one of my teammates working hard every day, attacking and capitalizing to be in the position we were today."

Pappas had four goals and Meghan Rode added three goals and an assist.

"We just know how each other plays," Hopkins said. "We say ‘composure, no complacency,’ [we know] every team is going to show up. We just have to earn it and we are here and we proved to ourselves that we deserved this."

Garden City (14-2) outscored West Babylon, 8-2, in the second half. Lacey Downey had three goals and an assist for West Babylon (13-5).

Garden City has employed coach Dave Ettinger’s mantra of winning the final game all season. With no state championships this year, the players knew their season wouldn’t leave Long Island. Still, they remained determined to win their final game on the biggest possible stage.

"Everything was unpredictable this year, but Coach Ettinger said to us, word for word, ‘There is no better feeling than winning the last game of the season and knowing it’s your last game of the season,’ " Pappas said. "So we knew walking into today it was our last day, so it’s awesome but it’s bittersweet."

Ettinger was proud of how his team played, especially for Hopkins to end her high school tenure with seven points.

"She’s had a dynamic season and just an incredible playoff run, so it’s nice when your best players step up in the playoffs and she did a great job with her leadership on and off the field," Ettinger said. "I’m happy for her and Sydney to have big games on the biggest stage."