Lynbrook girls lacrosse gets early jump on Carle Place thanks to Brooke Mazzei and Sophie Deifel

When you start as well as Lynbrook did on Wednesday, it doesn’t necessarily matter how you finish. The Lynbrook tandem of Brooke Mazzei and Sophie Deifel was rolling from the opening whistle as the Owls turned a seven-goal first quarter into yet another girls lacrosse victory.

“That was humongous for us,” Deifel said. “If we didn’t have that, we would have dug ourselves in a hole, so it was definitely big that we got up early like we practiced and it really helped us come out with the win.”

Deifel had six goals and two assists and Mazzei added five goals and an assist to lead Lynbrook to a 16-13 victory over host Carle Place in Nassau Conference II girls lacrosse action on Wednesday. Lynbrook opened a 7-3 lead after the first quarter and led 14-6 less than two minutes into the second half in the victory.

The Owls (10-2, 8-1) showcased their speed and high-powered offense with five goals over 2:14 to take a 6-2 lead with 3:19 left in the first quarter. They displayed turning draw controls into quick goals again by opening the second half on a 4-1 run over the first 1:50 of the third quarter for their 14-6 advantage.

“I think our strength is in transition,” coach Joe LaBarbera said. “We always like to move the ball quick at practice. We like speed and having everything set up quick rather than the defense being able to set up and go, so we use our athleticism to our advantage.”

“It’s great when we can dictate the pace of the game,” Mazzei said. “I think starting off like that, we realized we were able to push against them and we knew what we were able to do fast-break wise, so we just kept doing that.”

But Carle Place (6-6, 4-6) didn’t give up. The Frogs went on a 5-1 run over the final five minutes of the third quarter to cut Lynbrook’s lead to 15-11. The Reedy sister combination had 11 of Carle Place’s 13 goals with Tyler, an eighth grader, scoring seven goals and Madison, a sophomore, scoring four goals. Ava Gomes had four assists and Reese Aguilar scored two goals. Penelope Yaker had three goals for Lynbrook.

Wednesday’s win keeps Lynbrook among the trio of teams in Conference II with one loss as the Owls look to win a conference championship and improve their seeding for a hopeful extended postseason run.

“We want to get to Adelphi, that’s our goal this year,” Deifel said. “And the way things are looking, I think we’re going to get there. We have a great team, we all want to be there. We all love lacrosse and I think we’ll get there if we try hard enough.”