Leading off today: West Islip turned up the heat last night, rattling off 20 goals in its 20th straight victory, a 20-10 triumph against Lakeland/Panas in the NYSPHSAA boys lacrosse Class A semifinals at Hofstra.

   Senior midfielder Rob Moore scored five goals, Andrew Hodgson tacked on four to go with four assists and attackman Matt Gebhardt who scored three goals posted a hat trick. Senior middie Nicky Galasso added two goals and two assists, pushing his season totals to 65 and 64, respectively.

   The score would have been more one-sided if not for the work of L/P goalie Robert Belger, who made 18 saves.

   West Islip broke open an 8-5 game with eight third-period goals. Moore and Hodgson scored six seconds apart in a 4-0 run that made it 13-7 and set up a state final against Fairport, which registered an 8-6 victory over Ithaca.

   Andrew Hays scored twice in a 1:31 span, and Martin Manilla and Brendan Saylor also connected during the decisive 4-0 outburst that broke open a 2-2 game in the second quarter.

   Class B lacrosse: Harvard-bound junior defenseman Brian Fischer scored his second goal of the season on a nearly three-quarters-of-the-field run to break a tie with 8:58 to play and give Garden City a 5-4 win against Niskayuna.

   Fischer capitalized after Connor Horl cleanly run the faceoff and dished to Fisher to organize the possession. "Usually, the defense slides to me and I give it to the attack. But they never did. So I kept going," Fischer told Newsday. "It was an easy shot, a slam dunk. I've only had one other goal this season and it was on a pass in the crease. I never took it coast to coast before."

   Garden City's disciplined defense allowed Niskayuna only nine shots on goalie Alex Castronovo, and junior middie Tom Gordon scored twice in 47 seconds to build a 4-2 lead for the winners.

   Unbeaten Jamesville-DeWitt rallied from a 3-0 deficit to defeat Irondequoit 9-5 at Cicero-North Syracuse in the other semifinal.

   Senior midfielder Mike Utz scored twice as Irondequoit broke to its early advantage, but Tim Edwards and Rob Elbers began dominating at the faceoff X, giving J-D 15 of the day's 18 possessions. Peter Goss broke a 4-4 tie early in the third, then Edwards won the faceoff and

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scored again six seconds later to send the Red Rams on their way.

   "We spent too much time playing defense," Irondequoit coach Craig Whipple told The Post-Standard. "Even when we had the 3-0 lead, J-D was winning too many faceoffs and controlling too many ground balls. Eventually, they wore our defense out."

   The Eagles took the field a day after learning of the death of strength and conditioning coach Max Lill, 63.

   Class C lacrosse: There will be one last game for Corning East. The Trojans, who will merge with Corning West as part of a district sports consolidation next season, beat Aquinas 7-6 in the Class C semifinals two days after ousting Skaneateles by the same score.

   Trojans goalie Tyler White was credited with 17 saves as Aquinas held a 48-16 advantage in shots. “But a win is a win at this point," Corning East coach Bob Streeten told The Leader. "There are no beauty points – this isn’t a beauty pageant – it’s all about winning.”

   Corning East will make its 12th and final trip to the finals. The Trojans won Class B in 1990.

   Defending 'C' champ Manhasset cruised past Putnam Valley 13-4 in the other semifinal as Matt Tompkins, Pat Moroney and Quinn Moroney all produced hat tricks at Hofstra.

   The Indians extended their state-lading winning streak to 35 games as Ricky Buhr won 11 of 14 faceoffs and also picked up eight ground balls.

   Softball: Senior Krystn Benson struck out 20 Valley Central batters and drove home the winning run with a walk-off single in the 10th inning of North Rockland's 2-1 win in the NYSPHSAA Class AA quarterfinals.

   "I was looking for my pitch to drive it and the infield was in and I knew that if I got a good piece of it, it would go right over their heads," she told The Journal News.

   Benson finished with a four-hitter and walked two batters.