Wantagh among Class C contenders

Two back-to-back one-goal losses are all that separates Wantagh girls’ lacrosse from an unbeaten season.

Wantagh, which captured its first seven games, dropped its first game to Cold Spring Harbor, 8-7 on April 19, and then three days later fell to Garden City, 14-13 in overtime. The Warriors took the losses hard, but rebounded in a big way with convincing wins against Seaford and Long Beach to head into the home stretch of the regular season 9-2 and feeling confident gearing up for a championship run in the Class C playoffs.

“Once they got out of their slump they woke up a little bit and they have their heads up now,” said first-year Wantagh coach Lauren Ruppert. “They see now what the goal is and the end result.” 

The Warriors responded after the Garden City heartbreaker with a commanding 20-11 win against Seaford on April 25 that featured five goals and five assists from senior attacker Madison Alaimo. The Virginia commit then tallied four goals and three assists in a 17-10 victory at Long Beach April 27.

Twin sisters Julia Nicholson and Olivia Nicholson both also tallied four goals in the Long Beach win in which Wantagh stormed out to an 11-5 halftime advantage against last year’s runner-ups in Class B. Juliana Cerasi and Riley Forthofer netted two goals apiece in the Long Beach win underscoring the multiple of weapons Wantagh has this season.

“These girls just keep getting better and better as the season progresses,” Ruppert said. 

Sophomore attacker Isabella Sandoval has also emerged as an offensive threat this season and tallied three goals in a 14-10 victory against South Side on April 11. 

The Wantagh defense has been led by starters Kat Gullian, Brighid Smith, Paige Martin and Nicole Baudo with Lila Ingrilli also seeing playing time. Seniors Nicole Schaumloffel and Lauren Rochel have split time at goalie.

After hosting North Shore on May 2, Wantagh will travel to nearby Massapequa Friday to face the defending Class A champions at Berner Middle School starting at 5 p.m. before hosting Manhasset Monday at 5 p.m. in a rematch of last year’s Class C finals. The regular season concludes on May 11 at Schreiber High School in Port Washington.

The Warriors entered the week ranked 24th nationally in the Nike/USA Lacrosse High School Girls National Top 25l released April 25. Wantagh was ranked 10th in the same poll on April 18 just before the Cold Spring Harbor loss.

Rapport said that while the players were frustrated after the Cold Spring Harbor and Garden City defeats, the setbacks could prove to be valuable learning opportunities as her team eyes winning the program's first county title since 2017.

“Sometimes mistakes are a good thing because we see what we need to work on,” Ruppert said. “Some of them don't look at it that way and it was very hard for them to see it that way, but it kind of opened us up to what we needed to work on.”