Even when Port Washington erased a 7-4 deficit with 49.7 seconds left in the third quarter, Tyler Kuprianchik wasn’t worried.
The senior faceoff specialist, who had been hot in the circle all game despite playing with a stress fracture in his right foot, knew he just had to keep winning possession to give his Northport boys lacrosse team a chance to win.
That’s exactly what he did, grabbing the ball on all seven of Northport’s final battles at the circle, and with them, a 13-9 win at Hofstra University Saturday for back-to-back Class A Long Island championship titles for the Tigers. He was awarded the James C. Metzger MVP trophy for his efforts.
“I had the hot hands,” said Kuperianchik, who won 19 of 25 faceoffs, before quickly jumping ahead to next week’s contests. “But we’re not done yet. There’s still two more games to go.”
The Tigers (19-1) move on to play Scarsdale in a state semifinal game Wednesday at 4 p.m. at the University at Albany. Should they win, they’ll return to Hofstra on Saturday, June 11, for the final game of the season.
“We settled down, buckled down, got the dodge on the shorties, got a game plan down and went for it,” said senior midfielder Tim Kirchner (three goals, one assist). “[Northport coach Larry] Cerasi has been saying ‘2022 State Champions’ ever since we were 6 years old, and we’re going to carry that out.”
The road to the championship win seemed like a clear one at the start, with Northport going up 3-0 in the first minute-and-a-half, but by halftime, that lead had dwindled to one, with the Tigers up 5-4.
Kuperianchik secured the opening faceoff of the second half, leading to Kieran Spadaro’s feed of senior attack Will Murphy’s first of three goals — with Kirchner following with his hat trick score — but Gavin Jacobsen capped a three-goal spurt for Port Washington (13-4) to tie the game at 7-all with 49.7 seconds left in the quarter. Henry Haberman led the Vikings with three goals and an assist.
Lucky for Northport, Kuperianchik kept winning, and Jack Helrigel (two goals) capitalized with nine seconds left on the clock to put Northport back out in front.
“We knew Tyler was going to win the faceoff, we just had to keep the ball in our half,” Murphy said. “It’s such a relief having him out there, because you know even if someone is going to score, he’s going to get the ball back to us.”
That’s when the senior specialist went on his tare. Northport’s three-goal run was capped by senior attack Mike Meyer’s (one goal, three assists) rocket from the left side for a 10-7 lead with 10:43 left to play.
“They tied it up 7-7 and we all knew we needed to go on a run,” Kirchner said, pointing to the Tigers being a huge benefactor of Kuperianchik’s skillset. “It’s hard to lose a game with a guy like that.”
The senior referred to Wednesday’s matchup as a “business trip.” Last year, Northport’s boys lacrosse team could only go as far as the Long Island championship game, due to there being no statewide competition as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. So, with the opportunity to play for the elusive title this year, these Tigers say nothing is going to stand in their way.
“The job’s not finished. We’re going to keep going,” Murphy said. “Our team can turn it up at any time, and that’s what we did here — nothing is going to stop us now. I’ll go to war with my boys any day of the week.”
“I’m so happy for this team and even happier for what we’re going to accomplish,” Kuperianchik added. “I’m 100 percent confident we’re winning it all.”
