Miller Place Outlasts Huntington in County Lacrosse Final

Miller Place overcame Huntington's early lead in Wednesday's Class B Suffolk championship, emerging with a 5-4 win and a spot in the Class B Long Island Championship on Saturday.

Head coach Keith Lizzi – whose team is in just its fourth year as a varsity program – said the result rendered him nearly speechless.

“I can’t believe it,” he said. “Four years in the making, and we’re playing for a Long Island championship.”

Miller Place (14-5) will face Garden City, winner of eight straight Nassau County titles, at 2 p.m. at Hofstra on Saturday.

Senior goalie Matt Liantonio said Garden City might not know who Miller Place is – yet – but said his team has “100 percent respect” for Garden City.

“To take them down, we’ve got to play our best,” he said.

Liantonio made 14 stops en route to Miller Place’s win on Wednesday, including a number of point-blank shots down the stretch that otherwise would have been bad news for the Panthers. Lizzi called him the MVP of the game.

“I make it my goal to give this team a chance to win, but MVP is a little excessive,” Liantonio said. “My younger brother had two goals as a sophomore, and that’s huge.”

He was referring to his brother Thomas Liantonio, who turned a pass from their other brother, Steven Liantonio, into a goal that tied the game at 2 just a minute into the second quarter. Steven scored off a pass from Ryan Callahan to put Miller Place ahead 3-2, and after Huntington tied the score at 3, Thomas scored unassisted to give Miller Place a 4-3 lead.

Liam Walsh scored unassisted late in the third quarter to give Miller Place a 5-3 lead. In between, the defense rallied around Matt Liantonio to keep Huntington scoreless for the final 9:37 of the second quarter, all of the third quarter, and all but the final three seconds of the fourth.

“It’s incredible what he’s been able to do,” Steven Liantonio said of his brother Matt’s performance. “He really sparks us when he makes those saves. We really rely on him.”

When the two teams met earlier this season, Huntington (15-4) took away a 7-4 victory. Huntington coach Paul McDermott, whose team lost to Shoreham-Wading River in the 2011 county final, knew Wednesday's matchup would be another close game.

"I said to our guys it’s one and you’re out," McDermott said. "I didn’t think we were going to be on that end today."