Sayville girls lacrosse wins second state title in three seasons

Sayville turned a perfect season into a statewide statement at SUNY Cortland, beating Jamesville-DeWitt 15-7 for the NYSPHSAA Class C championship on June 13. The Golden Flashes finished 21-0, won their second state title in three seasons and closed the year ranked No. 2 nationally among public girls lacrosse programs.

The championship looked less like a surprise than the latest proof of a program built to repeat. Much of Sayville’s core has played together since fourth grade, and that continuity showed in the postseason, where the Golden Flashes stayed unbeaten all the way through the state final. The roster carried a large senior class and several players already headed to Division I programs, including Carly Cangelosi, Morgan Farrell, Julia Lilienthal, Olivia Desimone, Jenna Messina, Paige Manning, Julianna Montalto and Sophia Buffardi.

The numbers behind the title matched the results on the field. Sayville outscored opponents 289-119 across the season, a margin that reflects both offensive depth and the kind of defensive control that usually travels well in May and June. Head coach Adam Sznitken guided the group through a run that kept the Golden Flashes unbeaten into the state title game, a level of consistency that has become the program’s defining trait.

The setting added its own weight. NYSPHSAA has staged the girls lacrosse championships at SUNY Cortland since the tournament began in 1995, making the state final a familiar destination for New York’s best programs. For Sayville, though, the trip north carried extra meaning: the school’s 2024 Long Island Class C title led to its first state crown, and the 2026 run confirmed that the earlier breakthrough was part of a larger rise.

For Suffolk County, Sayville’s latest trophy does more than fill another case at the school. It establishes a public-school benchmark in girls lacrosse, the kind other programs on Long Island will measure themselves against when they talk about development, depth and postseason poise. The Golden Flashes did not just win another title in Cortland; they showed how a community program can turn one championship into a standard.