Massapequa girls lacrosse falls just short of earning trip to Class A state final
Massapequa's Allison Petrullo looks for space during a Class A semifinal at the NYSPHSAA Girls Lacrosse Championships in Cortland, N.Y., Friday, June 7, 2024. Credit: Adrian Kraus
CORTLAND — Though the Massapequa girls lacrosse team had a new starting lineup this season, they remembered the sting of their heartbreaking overtime loss in last year's state championship to Section V’s Fairport.
The teams met again in a state semifinal on Friday afternoon at SUNY Cortland. Massapequa's hunger to make up for last year's defeat could be felt in every bit of the team’s play as it rallied to tie the score four times throughout the contest, including Addison Labriola’s feed to Allison Petrullo for the final equalizer with 2:57 remaining.
But Massapequa fell just shy of advancing to the Class A state championship in a 10-9 loss to Fairport when Brenna Goss scored the winner on a free position with 29 seconds left.
“We wanted this after last year,” Labriola said. “We worked so hard to get here and knew this was going to be a tough game. We just got unlucky at the end, but we never let our heads drop.”
“I’m incredibly proud of them. They worked so hard,” coach Brendan Gaghan said. “It was a long season with a lot of ups and downs but at the end of the day, we made it up to states and were one goal away from making it to the championship game. I couldn’t really ask for anything more from them.”
Fairport (14-6) opened with three consecutive goals, including two from senior Katie Mallaber, who will play for Notre Dame next season. Labriola put Massapequa on the board with 5.6 seconds left in the first quarter when she scored on a free position.
Isabella Grosso found Cameron Labriola, Addison’s twin sister, before firing her own shot to tie the score at 4 with 2:55 remaining in the first half. Massapequa took its first lead in the third, when Addison scored her second goal of the game and extended it to 7-5 when Paige Garguilo came from behind the net to put the ball away.
Savanna Appleton tied the score at 8 for Massapequa with 6:51 left in the game, but Mallaber answered with her fifth goal of the day for Fairport.
“In practice, we pretended to be [Mallaber] and worked on our plays to defend her,” Cameron said. “She’s a great player and made it very tough.”
Senior goalkeeper Keira Durnin made seven crucial saves for Massapequa.
Though Massapequa will lose 15 seniors to graduation, it will return the remainder of its 33-player roster.
“This was a whole new team,” Gaghan said. “They grew tremendously. From where they started to the end of the year, this is an incredible transformation. Hopefully, we’ll be right here next year.”
