Staten Island Academy considers its games with PSAL powers Tottenville and Curtis a barometer. The Tigers are feeling pretty good about things following two lopsided wins.
“We are kind of looked down on because we are a private school,” senior star Erin Gibbons said. “It’s good to play public school teams like this and like kill them like we did.”
The Tigers took two close games at the half and blew them open for lopsided wins. They beat the Pirates, 16-5, on Thursday and took down Curtis, 20-7, in St. George on Saturday afternoon to claim the Staten Island Lacrosse League regular season title.
It sets up a big week in AAIS play. Staten Island Academy will likely need to beat Nightingale-Bamford and fellow unbeaten Chapin to earn the league’s regular-season crown and an automatic bid to the NYSAISAA tournament, something SIA failed to earn a year ago.
“We really want to be in NYSAIS,” Emily D’Arco said.
Gibbons, an All-City first team selection by The Post last season, continued her stellar year pouring in 10 goals, including seven of her team’s first eight. It helped the Tigers (7-1) take an 8-6 lead into the break. While Gibbons has been a talented player in years past Tigers coach Mike Bowler has seen her take great strides in her final season.
“She scored a lot of goals last year,” he said. “This year she is a phenomenal leader and she is unbelievably poised. It’s just something that wasn’t there last year. The game has really slowed down for her.”
She has gotten help in the scoring department all season and for the second straight game saw her team control possession thanks to Gabby Tricorico in the faceoff circle, in the second half. SIA, whose only loss is to Portledge, scored 11 unanswered goals against Tottenville and had 10 versus Curtis (11-4). The latter portion of those scores came with the Warriors bench in the game.
“For us it’s all about possession,” Bowler said. “We have speed. We have skill. I am really confidence in our ability to play offense.”
The speedy D’Arco had six tallies and Sam Avis, Molly Maugeri, Alice Harrison and Deanna Lambiasi had a goal apiece. Nicole O’Gara paced Curtis with three scores and Casey Metz had two. Curtis backup keeper Kim Meier made 12 saves to help keep her team in the game in the first half.
While SIA knows its still needs to take care of business in AAIS play, these are contests they look forward to, playing against its local rivals. It will likely meet one of them again in the SILL final and defend their crown later this year.
“We always looked forward to these games,” Gibbons said. “We love beating Tottenville. We love beating Curtis. Our league games are just as important, but we really look forward to games like this. It gets us pumped.”