Rongo-To-King Score Sends Westhampton Beach Girls Lacrosse To Suffolk County Class B Championship

“We just accomplished something so big,” Reese King said. “We could make history.”

And the freshman midfielder played a crucial part in that, grabbing a pass from Olivia Rongo from behind the cage and dumping the ball in unmarked for the go-ahead and eventual game-winning goal in No. 2-seeded Westhampton Beach’s 6-5 Class B semifinal victory over No. 3 West Babylon Tuesday.

​The Hurricanes will face No. 1 Comsewogue in the Class B final Wednesday, May 25, at Newfield High School at 5 p.m. It’s the second time in program history Westhampton Beach has reached a county championship, previously playing for a Class C title in 2018.

The play, a new one drawn up for the contest against the Eagles, called for Rongo to carry the ball behind the goal and find a receiver with a look at open netting.

“I just kept thinking, ‘Oh my God, I’m not face guarded. Oh my God,’” King said, smiling from ear-to-ear, “and I just cut wide open and she passed it to me at the top of the crease. It was the perfect look.”

Rongo said she couldn’t believe her opponents forgot about the face guard once they saw her swinging around the back of the cage.

“Sometimes I roll off of that, so they dropped to me and Reese was literally wide open,” said the senior midfielder. “I didn’t think it was going to be that easy.”

But the road to get to that point had some bumps in it. It all started with freshman goalkeeper Maya Farnan making back-to-back-to-back stops after West Babylon won the game-opening draw. Her last save and good clear led to junior Reilly Mahon’s first of two goals at the 18:21 mark.

“I had a good warm up and I was all pumped up and was excited for those shots — I wanted them,” said Farnan (10 saves). “And when there’s a save that clears all the way down to a goal, it doesn’t get much better — we all worked for that.”

West Babylon tied things up just under three minutes later after Brie Provenzano turned the ball over following King’s scoop off her own forced turnover, but the freshman attack made up for it. After her ground ball pickup following a Farnan save, Provenzano passed out to senior attack Lily Berchin, who propelled it to Rongo in the middle. The senior bulled up the middle for the go-ahead goal, and Mahon padded the lead when she tipped a loose ball across the goal line.

But West Babylon scored two straight off back-to-back draw control possessions, and rocketed in a buzzer-beater to make it a new game, 4-3, at halftime.

“We knew we had to stop making the little mistakes,” King said. “We had to hold the ball and take our time and make the easy choice, because that’s the one that will work. We had multiple scorers, we had multiple people stepping up and making the big plays, our defense was unstoppable — we just had to play it safer on the attacking side.”

Possession off the draw was also crucial, and Rongo made the necessary adjustments to win every battle in the second half.

“In the beginning, I got kind of spooked and didn’t remember what we had been practicing,” the senior said. “But the last time that we played them, all Lacey Downey was really doing was pushing with as much force as she could, so I knew if I dug quick enough to place it where I wanted it, it would go to me every time.”

While she won the opening draw of the second half, West Babylon scored at 19:21 on a pass outside and subsequent shot down low off a free position for a 5-3 Eagles advantage. Eighth-grade attack Ava Derby countered with a free position shot of her own nearly nine minutes later and senior midfielder Madison Mosher tied the game when she came around the left side of the cage and stuffed the ball into the corner. Rongo’s game-winnig play came off the ensuing draw win, with her pass to King for the good goal coming just 30 seconds later after Mosher’s tally.

“That was beautiful,” Farnan said of the goal, beaming with pride. “I wanted to run down and give them a hug. It was so pretty. That was perfect.”

Farnan followed it up with a stop off a free position, and Rongo checked the ball out of an opponent’s stick off the following free position in the game’s final seconds to end it.

“Our defense made the stop, but if they didn’t I had full confidence in Maya to save us,” King said. “She’s unstoppable back there.”

The freshman is also secure in her Hurricanes’ chances moving forward.

“I don’t even know how to process this yet,” Farnan said, laughing. “Yeah, I’m happy, but I don’t feel it, kind of. It’s almost too much to take in. I don’t want this season to end, none of us do, and that made this win that much more important.”

“This is all we’ve been thinking about. This is it,” Rongo added. “Every game there was a different part of our team that was a little off, and in this game, everything finally clicked, and I think that will stick with us. That was what we needed, and now it’s time to step on the pedal and put it away.”