Devon St. John leads 12-1 Huntington girls lacrosse team

An athlete, especially one in high school, doesn’t usually have the final say on when he or she returns from an injury. But Huntington senior midfielder Devon St. John made her intentions crystal clear to her physical therapists when rehabbing a hamstring injury that has bothered her for months.

“I told them, ‘I don’t care what you need to do, but you need to get me back by Northport,”’ St. John said.

Northport is one of those programs Suffolk girls lacrosse teams have measured themselves against for years. To get to where Huntington wishes to be, it will likely find itself in a matchup against Northport, or another top program like Northport, in May.

St. John, a four-year varsity player, has seen her Huntington teams come closer and closer to knocking off Northport over the years. This year, she knew they had the pieces to pass that in-season test.

St. John, in her first game back from the hamstring injury, played a key role in Huntington defeating Northport, 9-8, in overtime on April 11. Four days later, the Blue Devils knocked off Ward Melville, the reigning Suffolk Class A champions, 9-8. Huntington is 12-1 overall in what the Blue Devils hope to be a history-making season.

“My freshman year, we were all saying, ‘In four years, this is going to be it,’” St. John said. “We all saw the potential, we knew we had it, and it’s so rewarding that it’s coming together now.”

Coach Katie Reilly saw the potential as well. Huntington had a young starting lineup in recent years, but now that those freshmen and sophomores are juniors and seniors, the Blue Devils are in the mix for their first county title since 1995. Reilly witnessed a different feeling around the team preseason and the victory over Northport helped justify that.

“I think there’s a difference when having that confidence,” Reilly said. “You can have that skill, but there’s a difference in knowing you’ve done it. They have this mentality of, ‘It’s our turn now.’”

Huntington is filled with college commits, including Sabrina Boyle (Binghamton), Jolie Weinschreider (Rutgers), Grace Gordon (Lafayette) and St. John (Cornell). The Blue Devils also received some reinforcements from catholic schools in recent years with Boyle transferring back from Our Lady of Mercy and sisters Valentina Puccio and Olivia Puccio from Kellenberg.

“It just feels like people want to play lacrosse for Huntington,” Reilly said. “And obviously it’s made us stronger and we don’t want to lose that talent to private schools. Obviously, people have their reasons to want to go there, but it’s nice to know people think it’s worth it to come back.”

They could return as pieces to the program’s first title in 30 years.

“Everyone’s been saying it,” St. John said. “If there’s a year Huntington women’s lacrosse can go far, it’s this year. And throughout the entire team, we all feel that and we really want to make the most of that.”

Takeaways from the 2025 Gains for Brains

The Gains for Brains Showcase, which started in 2015, has become an annual elite girls lacrosse showcase with top teams from Long Island competing against other top programs from the Northeast. This year’s event featured programs such as the No. 1 overall and No. 1 public school in the nation, according to rankings by USA Lacrosse entering the Saturday, April 26 showcase.

Here are some takeaways from the event.

• St. Anthony’s is the real deal. Even after trailing 5-0 after the first quarter, the Friars answered with a 10-0 scoring run to knock off nationally-ranked Chatham (NJ), 13-7. Seven different Frairs had goals as St. Anthony’s proved yet again why it is the No. 1 team in the nation.
• Have to give a shout out to the No. 1 ranked public school, Darien. The Connecticut school defeated Sayville, 11-7, at the Gains for Brains as it has knocked off Long Island public school powerhouses such as Sayville, Garden City, Manhasset and South Side this year. Darien’s only loss all year came to St. Anthony’s, 13-8. Sayville led 4-2 early on though as the Golden Flashes gave Darien a battle.
• Garden City proved even without Kyle Finell, Newsday’s Nassau Player of the Year last year and a Northwestern commit who is out for the season with a torn ACL, the Trojans can still knock off elite programs. Garden City defeated New Canaan, a top-25 ranked team, 10-9 on Averie Smith’s winner with 32 seconds left. The Trojans will still be a factor in the Class B championship mix at every level.
• Similarly to the basketball team, which shares many of the same student-athletes, Wantagh showed fight after trailing early. Wantagh trailed by as many as seven goals before rallying to cut the score to a two-goal deficit in a six-goal loss to Nyack, the No. 8 team in the nation. Wantagh had multiple comeback victories during its girls basketball run to the state championship game. Wantagh girls teams have soccer and basketball titles this year after winning a girls lacrosse county title last year. Wantagh could take home another lacrosse title this spring.