With a burning passion to succeed, the Riverhead Blue Waves may have punched their ticket to the Class A lacrosse playoffs for the first time in team history with Saturday afternoon’s victory over North Babylon, 18-12.
“We’re still in the hunt,” said Riverhead head coach Vic Guadagnino. “I don’t want to say we’re in because there are still games to be played.”
“If a team below us gets a huge upset, we could be out of the playoffs,” he said. “Or maybe at the end of the day, we’ll move up in the rankings — who knows? It’s up to section XI, with their power ranking formulas.”
Riverhead (8-5 Division I, 10-5 overall) came out of the gates firing, scoring goals at will, led by senior Ryan Bitzer. Bitzer scored a career-high seven goals, adding a career-high in points with 10 in his final game at Riverhead High School on senior day.
“The main focus was to get the win today,” said Bitzer. “I wasn’t trying to do anything special. I had opportunities to make plays and I made them.”
The Blue Waves’ offensive prowess carried over from the second half of their previous game as they displayed pinpoint passing, setting up each other with plenty of space to shoot. Nearly every goal scored was the beneficiary of an efficient assist.
“Bing, bing, bing, goal,” is how Bitzer described a successful offensive possession.
“It’s all about quick ball movement,” he said.
Most of the openings are created by coach Ralph Pepe’s offensive schemes.
“Coach really emphasizes creating open space,” said Bitzer. “We have a lot of good shooters, it’s just a matter of getting them the ball with open space.”
Freshman Austin Fitzpatrick and junior Ryan Hubbard both scored three goals.
Junior midfielder Dan Czelatka was the key to many of the Blue Waves scoring chances as he finessed through the defense, contributing by recording a game-high six assists.
The Blue Waves dominated on ground balls: Roger Foster (6) and Hubbard (6) led the team.
Riverhead will play its final game of the season against defending state champion West Islip (8-3, 9-4) on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. in West Islip.
RiverheadLOCAL photos by Emil Breitenbach Jr.
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