Bayport-Blue Point wins LI Class C title, earns first trip to state semis

Warm up the buses. The Bayport-Blue Point girls lacrosse team is leaving Long Island.

For the first time in program history, Bayport-Blue Point will play in the state semifinals after a 9-6 victory over Manhasset in the Long Island Class C championship /Southeast Regional final Sunday night at Adelphi.

Bayport-Blue Point (18-0) will play Indian River in a state Class C semifinal at 1 p.m. Friday at SUNY Cortland. Manhasset, the defending state Class C champion, finished 9-7.

Ava Meyn had three goals, an assist and five draw controls. Mikaela Mooney also had three goals and Katie Clare added two for the Phantoms. “We’ve literally never wanted something more in our lives,” Mooney said. “And now that we get a shot at doing it, we have to leave everything out on the field.”

Bayport-Blue Point won its second Long Island championship in the last three seasons, but this will be the Phantoms’ first trip to the state semifinals. They won the Long Island Class C championship in 2021, but there was no state tournament because of the pandemic.

This was the third straight year the two teams met in the Long Island Class C championship game. “Getting back to this moment has been the biggest dream of ours,” Clare said. “And knowing we can make it all the way this year is absolutely a dream come true for everyone.”

Bayport-Blue Point had a key goal in the closing seconds of the first half to tie the score at 3. Clare had a free-position opportunity with nine seconds left. She started her run to the net but stopped, thinking she heard a whistle. When nothing was called, she continued her run toward the goal amid confusion and scored with 3.3 seconds left.

“It was just the instinct of the game took over, I had to go,” Clare said. “We had nine seconds left and you have to capitalize on the opportunity. I knew I had to put it in the back of the net.”

Meyn scored on a free-position less than four minutes into the second half to give Bayport-Blue Point its first lead of the game at 4-3. The Phantoms opened a 7-4 lead with 11:47 left in the second half.

“We’re a team; that’s Bayport lacrosse, baby,” coach Ryan Gick said. “We’re team lacrosse and that’s what we do. They battled.”

Mia LoPinto had two goals and an assist and Katelyn Greeley also scored two goals  for Manhasset. </CW></SB>

Gick called the Phantoms’ first half one of the worst halves they played all season. “We laughed it off, but I’ll tell you what, they came out firing in the second half,” he said. “I told them something at halftime that I’ve probably never said to a team in my life. I said they’re one of the best groups I’ve ever coached in my life and I told them to believe it, and they did.”

And with the chance to make program history less than a week away, the Phantoms can’t wait to board the bus. “It’s not just the months in the making, this is years and years in the making,” Clare said. “This is a whole program, and to know we have the chance to do it for all the teams in the past years is just amazing.”