South Fork Boys Lacrosse Has Its Best Game This Season In 14-3 Victory Over North Babylon

The South Fork boys lacrosse team played its best game of the season on Thursday, leading to a 14-3 victory over North Babylon at Southampton High School.

The Islanders, currently 5-7 in Division I play and 5-8 overall, will miss the playoffs this season after qualifying last year for the first time since the South Fork team — comprised of student-athletes from Bridgehampton, East Hampton, Hampton Bays, Pierson, Southampton and the Ross School — was created in 2017. But they are trying to finish the season strong to help what is an overall young team going into next season.

If they can defeat Bay Shore this Tuesday, May 10, at East Hampton High School, and then beat host Brentwood in their season finale on May 13, the Islanders would finish the season on a three-game winning streak and having won four of their final five contests, the only loss in that span being a 19-3 result to Northport, the top team in the division.

“We want to finish strong,” South Fork head coach Matt Babb said after Thursday’s victory. “I brought some JV guys up today to get them experience, get them to see what they're looking forward to, and we’re still young. We've got five seniors on the entire team, three from East Hampton, two from Hampton Bays, and it’s a learning process — we're learning how to win. Last year we were very senior heavy with 17 on the team, 19 guys we lost overall, so it’s a learning process. We’ve seemed to hit our groove a little bit and hoping we carry that over to our last two games against Bay Shore and Brentwood.”

South Fork jumped out to a 3-0 lead over North Babylon on Thursday only to see the Bulldogs come back with a pair to make it a one-goal game with 3:57 remaining in the first quarter. In the final minute of the quarter, Charlie Corwin scored a nifty behind-the-back goal in the upper, left-hand portion of the goal that the North Babylon goalie never saw. The East Hampton sophomore, who led all scorers with six goals and seven points overall, said it was the first time he’s ever scored in such a way in a school game.

“I just beat my guy to the middle, and then had a fade-out to the right side. I saw I didn't have much of an angle to shoot regularly, so I just put it behind the back to increase my angle,” he explained.

Corwin’s goal wound up being crucial to allowing South Fork to retain the lead after the first quarter with North Babylon scoring in the final seconds to make it a 4-3 game heading into the second quarter. East Hampton sophomore Jack Cooper and Corwin scored in the second to make it a 6-3 game at halftime, then the Islanders really turned things on in the second half.

Hampton Bays senior Stephen Sutton, South Fork’s starting goalie, with help from his defense, didn't allow North Babylon to score in the second half — the first time they've held a team scoreless in a half this season — and the Islanders went on to score at will. Cooper, who finished with four goals and two assists, said it was nice to see the team pick things back up after the slow start.

“We’re coming off a rough loss to Northport so I think that led to our slow start today,” he said. “Second half, third quarter was really good and our team just picked it up. I think have a lot of student-athletes on this team and with testing going on, final exams, it got a lot of kids overwhelmed, so we’re just kind of rolling with it as it goes.”

Sutton, who was credited with making seven saves all game, said he felt as if he let the team down in goal in the first half so wanted to turn things around in the second half.

“I came up a little bit on the slow side in the first half and wanted to come back for the team. They deserve better than that from me so I wanted to make sure that they got the better play from me, and the defense was just playing really well,” he said. “They were letting me see the ball easier. The middies, like Jack and Charlie, breaking out the clear was just run so smoothly.”

Sutton is one of five seniors graduating this June, and one of the only starters of that group, so the majority of the team is returning. Sutton, one of a handful of Hampton Bays players who joined the team this year after playing on the JV level the past few years, said he appreciated being able to play on the varsity level his senior season.

“Hampton Bays gave us this opportunity to come out here and play varsity, which I really appreciate Mr. Foster, our athletic director, giving us this opportunity, and Coach Babb and South Fork for accepting us,” he said. “It’s been a great experience my senior season and I think these guys have a bright future. They've got sophomores like Jack and Charlie coming up and I’m happy to leave the team in their hands.”