West Babylon's Shannon Smith is closing in on the New York state career scoring record. She has 419 goals, which is 24 shy of the record.
But yesterday against Garden City (the 2x defending Class B state champion), Smith was held to just one goal, her lowest total since April 13 of last year, when she also scored just one goal in a 5-4 loss to Northport and its All-American defender Lacey Vigmostad, who will be Smith's teammate next year at Northwestern.
Smith is certainly a great player, but, aside from sophomore Alyssa Murray, Smith doesn't have a strong supporting cast. That's been West Babylon's biggest problem over the past few seasons, and so far doesn't look like it has been solved.
Granted, Garden City is a great team (probably the best on Long Island), so West Babylon's season won't necessarily be indicative of this one contest. And they also have plenty of time to work the younger girls into a bigger role.
But the bottom line is this: Smith will put up her numbers this year, and should break the goals record any game now, but West Babylon will struggle without some other girls stepping up.
Stay tuned.