Girls lacrosse notebook: Jayden Piraino becomes Hills West's all-time leading point scorer

Jayden Piraino couldn’t wait to throw on a Half Hollow Hills varsity uniform for the first time. When she made the varsity as an eighth grader, she was both excited and nervous about the opportunity. But a week later, the COVID-19 pandemic began and after roughly a week of practice with the team, her first varsity game would have to wait.

“It was definitely pretty tough being thrown in with a bunch of older girls who are bigger, faster and stronger than you,” Piraino said. “It is a tough place to be put into and there is a lot of pressure being on varsity, but I feel (coach Lori Horbach) had a lot of patience with me and she really did show a lot of confidence in me. Making the team as an eighth and ninth grader was truly very important to where I am now.”

Even with missing game action in her first varsity season, Piraino still went on to make history. Piraino became the program’s all-time leading point scorer this year and finished her varsity tenure with 313 points. She surpassed Ashley Gonzalez’s record of 293 points, according to Horbach. Piraino couldn’t have imagined becoming the program’s all-time scoring leader when she first started on varsity.

“If you had asked my eighth-grade self that, I wouldn’t have said reaching 300 would be a mile mark for me. But that was one of my goals at the beginning of my senior season to get the record. I exceeded all my expectations.”

Piraino, who is committed to play at Virginia, finished with 49 goals and 31 assists in her senior season. She’s done all this despite facing constant faceguards and additional defensive attention for a 7-9 Hills team.

“When you get put on varsity as an eighth or ninth grader, you look up to the older girls and you try to exceed their expectations and I think that’s the role that she’s taken for us now,” Horbach said. “All the younger girls in our district and in our program and the middle school that see a kid like Jayden, who has put in so much time and effort and lacrosse in her life, they see her and know they can do something like that which is amazing for a program like Hills.”

Piraino’s dominance extends outside the high school game as she was one of just five Long Island girls selected to play on the U18 Women’s National Team at the USA Lacrosse Fall Classic in Maryland in October. Piraino was one of 148 girls invited to try out with 23 players selected. Tess Calabria (St. Anthony’s), Madeleine Chun (Manhasset), Kayla Gilmore (Floyd) and Megan Kenny (St. Anthony’s) were also selected for the U18 team.

“It was something really challenging, but it was something I really wanted to do,” Piraino said. “Making that team meant a lot and I proved to myself that I can do it and that all my hard work has paid off at the end of the day.”

Milestone alerts

Maya Soskin, a Cold Spring Harbor junior committed to play at Florida, recorded her 500th save on Wednesday. Soskin has started since the eighth grade and the Seahawks have won the Long Island Class D championship in each of her previous three seasons.

Hailey Kulesa, a Hauppauge junior committed to play at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, broke the program all-time and single-season draw control record this year. Kulesa finished with 130 draw controls, surpassing Keri McCarthy’s mark of 115 in 2015, according to coach Megan Gersbeck. She has 258 draw controls, which surpassed McCarthy’s mark of 201.

Jenna Soto, a senior committed to Northwestern, scored her 200th goal with her final score as a part of a nine-goal performance in a 14-7 win for Smithtown East against Bay Shore on Thursday.