The best defense isn’t a good offense. The best defense is dominant draw control, as if you control possession, you control the game.
Garden City proved that by winning nearly every draw and causing turnovers while possessing the ball nearly the entirety of the most important quarter of its season.
The Trojans defeated Smithtown West, 9-6, in the Long Island Class B girls lacrosse championship at Adelphi on Tuesday. After entering the fourth quarter tied at 6, Regan Backer won the opening draw control of the final period and scored 39 seconds into the period. Garden City won the ensuing two draw controls and possessed the ball nearly the entirety of the fourth quarter to control the final 12 minutes.
“That’s a really big part of the game,” Backer said. “It’s so important. I don’t know if a lot of people realize how important or how hard that can be. If we have possession and we have the ball, we can score. If they have the ball the entire game, they are going to create possessions to score and we’re not.”
Backer, Kimberly Colucci and Deanna Prisco each scored in the fourth quarter as Garden City outscored Smithtown West 3-0 in the final period.
On a rare occasion that Smithtown West controlled the ball in the final period, Prisco chased down a long ground ball following a turnover with 4:16 left. Barely a minute later and following a Garden City timeout, Prisco scored the game’s final goal with 3:13 left.
“I knew we needed the ball,” Prisco said. “We’re in an LIC, we needed to win this and come back from last year, so it was just do whatever you can to get the ball back.”
Garden City (18-2) will play a team to be determined in the state Class B Southeast Regional final at Lakeland High School in Westchester County at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. Smithtown West finished 16-3 after winning its first county title in program history.
Colucci had two goals and two assists and Tori Ottomanelli and Kathryn Monaco each added two goals for Garden City.
Sisters Ashley and Kaitlyn Mennella each had two goals for Smithtown West.
The Trojans led 4-2 at halftime and 6-4 with 2:50 left in the third quarter before Jolie Schiavo and Ashley Mennella scored in the final 1:35 of the fourth quarter to tie the score at 6. Garden City dominated possession from there, largely thanks to the draw control quartet of Backer, Prisco, Ottomanelli and Monaco.
“It’s huge,” coach Dave Ettinger said. “We put a lot of time into it and we have a couple different options to try to win it. And the girls don’t care who gets the ball as long as we’re getting the ball and we did great on it early. We sputtered on it a little bit in the middle, but when we needed to finish strong with possession, they did an outstanding job of that.”
Garden City won its third Long Island title since 2021, reaching this contest in each of the last five years. The Trojans fell in last year’s LI final, and that feeling was a motivator throughout the season.
“Last year was a shocking ending to all of us,” Ottomanelli said. “There’s nothing really like that feeling. This year and thinking about last year, all the motivation came from last year because we knew we were so much better than how we ended.”
But the Trojans aren’t satisfied yet, as they seek the program’s first state title since 2017.
“The goals never stop,” Ottomanelli said. “It’s always a state championship and when you play in such a competitive program and one of the best lacrosse programs on Long Island, you want to shoot for the stars and our end goal is to win a state championship.”
Owen O’Brien covers high school and college sports for Newsday. He’s also covered professional teams such as the Mets, Yankees, Jets and Giants since graduating from the University at Buffalo.