Massapequa girls lacrosse's Paige Garguilo scores OT winner to beat Syosset

It took only one conference game for the defending Long Island Class A champions to feel the effects of the biggest change in New York State lacrosse.

This spring, boys and girls lacrosse on Long Island are featuring a shot clock. For the girls, it’s a 90-second shot clock beginning at the start of possession.

One of the driving motivators for the rule was to eliminate stalling and teams holding possession for multiple minutes in the game’s most crucial moments, especially late in the fourth quarter and in overtime.

When Massapequa won the draw control in overtime of its girls lacrosse game against Syosset on Monday, the option to wait nearly the full three minutes of overtime before shooting was gone. It was time to attack — and Paige Garguilo was ready.

The senior attack scored with 2:09 left in overtime to give Massapequa a 15-14 victory over host Syosset in their Nassau Conference I openers.

Massapequa coach Brendan Gaghan called timeout after the draw control victory and told his team to play the way it usually would. But the new norm is go in quickly rather than waiting for a near last-second shot.

“I think it 100% changed the game,” Garguilo said. “You have to be smarter when you take your shots. If we didn’t have the shot clock, we would have held the ball until the last shot. It definitely affected our overtime.”

Garguilo ran from behind the goal, beat a defender and fired the winning goal to the top-left corner.

“I knew once my team cleared through, I had to take charge and score the goal,” she said. “And I knew I could do it. I knew we were going to win.”

“There’s no one I would rather have the ball in her stick than Paige,” Gaghan said. “She has it in her. She has that drive and she wants to be the best of the best.”

Garguilo finished with five goals and two assists. Savanna Appleton added three goals and two assists, Micaela Gillis had three goals, Cassidy Morrow had two goals and Grace Hoffman had a goal and four assists for Massapequa (3-1, 1-0).

Julie Shaughnessy had four goals and three assists and Jayden Stadler had two goals and two assists for Syosset (0-3, 0-1).

The offenses dominated early, with the score tied at 6-6 after the first quarter before Syosset took a 10-8 halftime lead. Massapequa tied the score at 13 entering the fourth quarter, and neither team scored in the final nine minutes before overtime.

Two-time defending Long Island Class A champion Massapequa is focused on another title, with a goal of earning the first state crown in program history.

“That’s always in the back of our head,” Appleton said. “That’s the end goal, to get back where we were and get through it. That’s what we’re playing for.”