South Fork Boys Lacrosse Has Regained its Footing After Tough Season-Opening Loss

Since its rough season-opening 16-0 loss at Westhampton Beach on March 28, the South Fork boys lacrosse team has won three of its last four games as of Tuesday morning, with the lone loss during that time frame coming to nationally-ranked Half Hollow Hills on April 8.

After losing so much talent to graduation, including but not limited to Jack Cooper, Charlie Corwin and Isaiah Lattanzio — all of whom are playing the game in college now — and losing one of its top players in Luca Lattanzio to transfer, expectations could have been perceived as low coming in to this season for this year’s young squad. Because of that, South Fork head coach Matt Babb agreed that maybe his team is flying under the radar a bit.

“We may not have the name recognition that we had from last year’s graduating group. Except for Owen [Haynes] and junior attack Tyler Rodgers, all our starters had varsity experience coming into this season and are playing with poise,” he explained. “The offense is starting to come around and get more comfortable in our new offense and we hope to get Slate [Glick] back from injury shortly after this week.

“These next two games are good games for us to fine tune some things as we move on to some of the teams that are ranked above us [preseason] next week,” Babb added.

Babb said that his leaders, senior attack and captain Slate Glick of Pierson, East Hampton junior attack and captain James Corwin, East Hampton sophomore midfielder Zane Karoussos and Hampton Bays sophomore midfielders Michael Single and Brayden Talmage were all tasked with stepping up in the absences of the now graduated, or transferred, players and he said they’ve all done so early on. Glick suffered an injury that required a hospital visit, but is expected to return soon.

Corwin scored four goals in the Islanders’ 13-3 victory at North Babylon on Monday. Single and Talmage both finished with hat tricks in a game South Fork led, 9-2, going into the fourth and final quarter. Southampton junior Ollie Edson made 11 saves in goal.

Single had eight points (six goals, two assists), Karoussos seven points (two goals, five assists) and Corwin five points (four goals, one assist) in a 16-2 victory over Brentwood at East Hampton High School on Thursday, April 10. Babb said it was an equally good showing from both the offense, now led by coach Sean Collins who is new to the staff, and the defense, which has continued to be led by coach Jaron Greenidge. The defense is made up of all juniors, including Southampton’s Nate Barbour, a co-captain, East Hampton’s Theo Ball and Cole Dunchick, sophomore longstick midfielder Owen Haynes, and, of course, Edson, the team’s starting goalie.

“Cole stepped in for Zane [Karoussos] when we decided we needed him at either LSM or midfield this season,” Babb said. “The way he is playing, I think we made the right choice.”

The win over Brentwood came after that tough 19-5 loss to Hills on April 8, which was also played in East Hampton.

“The Hills game was tough as expected — they are a nationally ranked team for a reason,” Babb said. “I thought we did some good things, especially in the first quarter. In the second, we made mistakes, and Hills was quick to capitalize, and we couldn’t regain our footing.”

South Fork (2-1 in Division I, 3-2 overall, 107.07 power points) played at Copiague on Wednesday and will host Smithtown East in its next game on Tuesday, April 22, at Hampton Bays High School at 4:30 p.m.