It was a meeting of undefeated teams on April 9 when the Patchogue-Medford Raiders girls lacrosse team traveled to Northport to take on the first-place Tigers.

Pat-Med came into the game at 3-0 (2-0 in Division 1). Northport came in at 4-0 (3-0 in Division 1).

It was a close game, with the score tied at 1-1 at the end of the first quarter and Northport holding a 3-2 lead at halftime.

Northport broke things open after the half, scoring four goals to one for the Raiders to go up 7-3 at the end of the third quarter. The Raiders rallied for a pair of goals in the fourth quarter by Lilianna Durkin and Olivia Liddell.

The Raiders’ gritty, never-quit performance was an example of the “attitude and effort” approach that second-year Pat-Med head coach Patrick Cleary and assistant coach Melissa Sconone have preached all season.

“At the end of the day, we’re Patchogue people, and Patchogue people are tough people,” said Cleary, a 2015 Pat-Med graduate, who was a star lacrosse player at the school and played lacrosse in college.

“When push comes to shove, we want to be the tougher team,” he said. “If we can enforce our will on other teams and have them play at our pace, I think we can find a lot of success.”

Liddell’s third-quarter goal was one of three she scored for Pat-Med. Liddell, a Newsday top 100 selection, has scored 12 goals and tallied five assists this season. She had 42 goals and 13 assists last season.

In addition to Liddell and Durkin, Isabella Petersen also scored for Pat-Med. Reese Halliday, Addison Ruland and Alexa Schiller each had an assist for the Raiders.

Pat-Med goalkeeper Hailey Stratton had an exceptional game with 11 saves.

Stratton and the Raiders defense held Northport, which made it to the Suffolk County championship game last season, to its second-lowest number of goals this season.

Stratton has 400 saves in her career at Pat-Med. A junior, she has committed to play lacrosse at University of North Carolina, Charlotte.

“She stood on her head,” Cleary said of Stratton. “She bailed us out of a lot of tough situations. She continues to impress us, and she continues to stand tall.”

The game was another step forward for the Raiders, which went 7-7 last season, which was Cleary’s first as Pat-Med head coach. This season, Long Island Lacrosse Journal named Pat-Med a team to watch.

“We’re a Patchogue-Medford team that I don’t think a lot of people in Suffolk County have seen,” Cleary said following the game. “Something we’ve been talking about this year is just having great attitude and great effort. The product we put on the field today, even though we made some mistakes, is a product that we’re working with and getting better every single day. I think we’re going to shock a lot of teams in Suffolk County because we’re a team that doesn’t back down. We’re a team that plays for each other and we’re a team that, at the end of the day, knows that when one of us scores, we all score. As long as we put points in the back of the cage and we’re doing it for each other, I don’t think there’s a limit for this squad.”One indication of the level of talent on the Raiders is the number of players who have committed to play lacrosse at the college level. In addition to Stratton, they include Liddell (Stony Brook), Schiller (LIU Post) and Ruland (Army).

Pat-Med’s next game is a home game on April 17 against Smithtown East.

“I’m looking to impress a lot of people this year,” Cleary said.