Smithfield just made the fight for the Division III boys lacrosse title very interesting.

NORTH SMITHFIELD — The postgame celebration told you just how important Thursday’s win was to the Smithfield boys lacrosse team.

The Sentinels’ 6-5 victory over Westerly wasn’t just a revenge win. This wasn’t just a big midseason victory over the defending Division III champs that will prevent them having another undefeated season.

It was a confidence-builder. Smithfield needed to know it could beat the Bulldogs and now the Sentinels know they can.

“Mentally, it’s really big for us,” Smithfield’s Nick Pike said. “We lost [to Westerly] in the playoffs, lost the last game, so we knew we could compete and we knew could win. But to actually do it, it’s really big for us to know we can play with them and play with any team in this division.”

“We always knew we could beat them, especially our first game we played them last year when we tied them and went into overtime and lost,” Smithfield goalie Dalton Donoyan said. “It’s huge to realize that it can happen.”

More: Who are Rhode Island's best boys lacrosse teams? Here's how Eric Rueb ranked them this week

More: Is the La Salle boys lacrosse team unstoppable? Yes. Do the Rams believe that? They do not.

The teams are hardly long-standing rivals, but playing together in Division III last year certainly created a big brother/little brother vibe. Westerly, down from D-II after going 3-9 the previous season, went undefeated and won the D-III title.

It’s toughest foe the entire season was Smithfield, which was moved up after winning the D-IV title the year before. The Sentinels lost to the Bulldogs in overtime, 9-8, then fell to Westerly in the D-III title game, 9-8.

The Bulldogs’ success over the Sentinels continued this spring, where Westerly welcomed Smithfield to town and won by a very familiar 9-8 score.

So yes, hungry would be a good way to describe how the Sentinels felt coming into Thursday night.

“This is definitely a revenge game for playoffs, for the last game,” Pike said. “We were practicing all week for this, getting ready, and we really wanted this.”

The two teams are similarly built. Both possess the same strengths and skillset, so Thursday went as expected. It was tough, it was gritty and it was all the other fun words coaches love to use when goals aren’t being scored.

Both offenses were meticulous in their execution, waiting for the defense to err so they could capitalize. Neither defense did and with two of the state’s best goalies in net on both sides — Donoyan for Smithfield, Ryder Casady for Westerly — to see Westerly go ahead, 2-1, at the half wasn’t a shock.

In the second half, Thomas Hayden jump-started the Smithfield offense. He executed a shot that tied the game at 2, then 39 seconds later scored one that got a couple of friendly bounces before finding a way across the goal line. Westerly’s Alexander Luzzi tied the game three minutes later, setting up a fourth quarter.

Smithfield won the game in the fourth by executing its offense to perfection. It scored quick, getting a goal from Ryan Cavanagh one minute in and before Westerly could process what happened, Julian Herrera added another.

Westerly responded, but Pike came up with a goal that put the Sentinels ahead, 6-4, with four minutes left.

“We were really trying to figure out how they were playing in the first half,” Pike said. “Once we figured it out, we had to amp it up and just get shots on net. We had to move faster, move quicker and we found a way to put the ball in the back of the net.

“Once one goes in, you know you can get another one. You just keep building on the goals you have.”

Smithfield dominated possession most of the game and had a chance to run the clock out to seal the win, but Westerly made that easier said than done. The Bulldogs pushed up the intensity on defense, creating turnovers and getting a Caleb Williams goal with 3:14 left to play.

They just couldn’t find another. Smithfield gave them chances, but Donoyan stood strong and with the game on the line, didn’t flinch.

“The way to think about it is it's no [different than any] other defensive possession,” Donoyan said. “I was saying it out there, while we were defending, I was like ‘it’s a regular defensive possession’ because if you put pressure on yourself like this is the biggest one of the game, you end up screwing up because you're nervous and scared.

“You just have to think first possession of the game, middle possession of the game, you play everything the same no matter what.”

In the immediate aftermath of the loss — when Westerly players told each other “this is just the regular season, this is their championship” as Smithfield put together a title-worthy celebration — the Bulldogs understood they had lost a winnable game, but the big picture hadn’t changed.

“Without their man-up goals, we win this one easily,” Westerly’s Eric Fusaro said. “But we have to practice a lot harder, too, and know that every team is coming for us.”

Westerly isn’t going anywhere. The only difference between the Bulldogs before the game and after the loss — the team’s first since falling to Chariho, 14-9, on May 17, 2022 — is now they’ll be extra motivated if they see Smithfield again.

“Not that we’re unmotivated, but when you win every game and most games are cake-walks – no offense to the other opponents we play – it’s kind of hard to keep that fire burning,” Fusaro said. “This is really going to help. This just added a lot of fuel to my fire and I hope the other guys’ too.”

Smithfield was on another planet after the win. It had every right to be. The Sentinels knew it could beat Westerly; they just didn’t have the evidence. Thursday’s win provided that and now they have their sights set on a future matchup that should be more than just a regular-season game.

“We’re definitely going to bring it as hard as we came today, maybe harder,” Pike said. “It’s 110 percent work and effort the next time we see them.

“We definitely can [win a title] and we can definitely come out on top once again.”

“I think it’s no secret we’re going to see Westerly in the championship,” Donoyan said. “We proved today it’s going to be a close battle but I think that if we just work our butts off in practice and just grind, we’ll become a better team than them and we’ll be able to blow them out in the finals.”

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Smithfield beats Westerly in Division III boys lacrosse Thursday night