Derby Nets Game-Winner for Westhampton With 30 Seconds Left in OT

Ava Derby said she thrives under pressure.

With 30 seconds left in overtime and her Westhampton Beach girls lacrosse team knotted at 11 with Shoreham-Wading River on Monday night, the freshman attack turned that pressure into diamonds. She bulled her way down the right sideline, stopped, juked left, then turned right to squeeze between two defenders and create an open lane, shooting over four other blockers and into the lower right corner of the cage to win it for Westhampton Beach (5-1).

“It’s really exciting to be in these overtime games,” said Derby, who scored four times and had an assist. “I feel like I work best under pressure, and in that moment, I saw I had the opportunity to go, and took it.”

Senior midfielder Reilly Mahon was wide-eyed as her teammate dashed toward her, and stepped aside to help Derby get the goal.

“I saw her run toward me, and thought, ‘I’m just going to move out of the way. She’s got this,’” Mahon said, laughing.

Midfielder Reese King was right beside Derby when the ball wound up in her stick, and started screaming: “Ava, go! Ava, run! Sprint! Sprint!”

“This is a big confidence boost,” the sophomore said. “And this is a big Class C win.”

But the Hurricanes, with 19 returners, were already poised for victory, having come out on the winning side of three out of four one-goal games this season, three of which went into overtime. Westhampton Beach was also part of 11 games decided by a goal last year, although losing five of them, including the Class B state semifinal. But the Hurricanes also earned three consecutive 6-5 victories in a historic playoff run, which included a six-session overtime victory over Garden City for the district’s first Long Island Championship.

“For some reason, we fuel off games like this,” Mahon said. “We thrive in one-goal games.”

While Westhampton Beach did have a five-goal advantage with King’s second goal of the game, to go up 10-5 to start the second half, the Wildcats (4-2) scored six straight to take their first lead.

“This is what good lacrosse should be,” head coach Mary Bergmann said. “We didn’t do anything wrong to make the gap close, we just had opportunities that didn’t go our way.”

Hurricanes hit Shoreham-Wading River goalkeeper Kamryn Osik (seven saves) three times on free position shots, and had a fourth chance by Lily Graves hit the right post with 1:48 to go in overtime. Westhampton Beach lost the ball twice in that three-minute extra session, but when one of myriad turnovers was forced to once again give the Hurricanes a chance at it, Bergmann called timeout to remind the girls how far they’d come.

“I told them they had to think back to what we were able to do last season,” the coach said. “And I think losing to Sayville in overtime last week was a blessing for us. When Sayville came back, you could see our body language — we were just deflated. So, we spent the last week coming together as a team and figuring it out. I think we want to find our own identity, but thinking back to those wins definitely helps them get over these tough hurdles.”

And with a mantra of putting the team first, Mahon said this group is starting to pull it together. She, King, Graves and sophomore Joely Schaumloffel all added two goals in the win.

“They ended up getting the momentum, but we did well with keeping our heads up and pushing forward,” Mahon said. “Our motto this season is ‘We over me,’ and we finally met our goal and achieved that.”

Her coach said that’s what she’s been impressed with most from this young group of lacrosse players.

“In the beginning, we had a bunch of different goal scores and a lot of different girls getting looks, and I think that’s what’s important,” Bergmann said. “I would have loved to win by a few goals, but we know that we are not going to get down or turn on each other. I think we are heading in the right direction.”

After King’s stick check that led to a ground ball scoop by sophomore defender Hailey Donahoe with 1:30 left in regulation, Graves went to goal and drew a shooting space call for a free position shot she capitalized on to tie the game with 42 seconds to go.

Shoreham-Wading River, as it had done through most of the contest, won the draw to open overtime, but after another ground ball win, Bergmann called that timeout to draw up an isolation play she admitted wasn’t even planned to run through Derby.

“I noticed that they were pressuring out everyone else, so we called Ava to take it on the fly, and it just happened to work,” Bergmann said. “We also said during that timeout that we needed to be aggressive. I think the thing with our team is that we are confident with whoever has it in their stick, and I know Ava would give up the ball in a second if it meant we were going to win the game. She has definitely stepped up into a leadership role, and I don’t even think of her as a freshman. She is so beyond her years.”

The young attack said when she picked up the ball and looked downfield, she knew what had to be done.

“I was thinking we needed to end this now,” Derby said, smiling. “I knew this needed to be a statement win.”