West Islip trailed for more than two periods, lost its starting goaltender to a third-period altercation and still left The Rinx with a win. Giacomo DeBetta scored the go-ahead goal with 3:02 left as West Islip rallied for a 3-2 victory over Northport/Huntington on Wednesday night in the season opener for both teams, a rematch of last year’s finals.
Northport/Huntington struck first on a strong individual effort by Luke Scheibe, who split the defense and scored with 13:13 left in the first period. Owen Karpoich and Robert Auletta assisted. That goal held up through a scoreless and physical second period, which included coincidental head-contact minors and misconducts to West Islip’s Matthew Cascino and Northport/Huntington’s Jordan Oromaner. The crowd, including a large and loud West Islip student section, grew louder with every scrum.
The game turned in the third. An altercation led to game misconducts for Northport/Huntington’s Lucas Serino and West Islip’s Jonathan Grande and left West Islip without its starting goaltender, Tyler Sapoff. West Islip had skaters fill in until Sean Murphy could get dressed and come on cold. Moments after Murphy entered, Jack Fifield scored an unassisted shorthanded goal with 9:20 left to tie it 1-1. Just 34 seconds later, Jake Raineri finished patiently off a feed from James Aspetti for another shorthanded goal and a 2-1 lead.
Northport/Huntington answered. Justin Cahn, a threat all night, drove a wrist shot from above the circle with 6:12 remaining to make it 2-2, with Kevin Sherwood picking up the assist. West Islip went back in front when DeBetta finished at the back door off a pass from Colin Bloom for his third career varsity goal.
Northport/Huntington pulled its goaltender for an extra attacker in the final minute and kept pressure on the West Islip zone, but West Islip’s defense held. Murphy, who entered cold with roughly nine minutes left, earned his first career varsity win after allowing one goal. Sapoff allowed one goal before leaving, and Rex Moscati took the loss in his varsity debut as Northport/Huntington’s starter. Karpoich finished with 26 penalty minutes.
West Islip opens at 1-0-0-0 and Northport/Huntington at 0-1-0-0, and both teams return to the ice later this week.
