The South Side girls lacrosse team isn’t shying away from history. The Cyclones are chasing it.

After back-to-back seasons of crushing 11-10 losses in county semifinal contests, South Side is playing in its first county championship since 2021 when the top-seeded Cyclones play No. 2 Wantagh in the Nassau Class C final at Adelphi at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday. They have already escaped their recent hurdles of last-second losses in the semifinals and will go after more history on Wednesday as the Cyclones attempt to win the first county title in program history.

“It’s always been in the back of our mind, but we wanted to take it game by game throughout the season,” senior midfielder Charlotte Rathjen said. “But now that we’re finally here, it just gives everyone chills to hear we’d be the first ever for the program to win it and we know we’re more than capable of doing so.”

Those back-to-back one-goal losses actually give the Cyclones some additional confidence heading into Wednesday.

“It’s obviously been hard, but it also gives us hope that we know we are more than capable of beating those teams,” Rathjen said. “We were so close, it’s just putting those final pieces together and we know we are right there.”

With a strong mix of older and younger talent, including seniors Sienna Connolly (49 goals, 14 assists), Annie Chimienti (33 goals and 54 assists) and Rathjen (55 goals, 16 assists), coach Rob Devlin knew he had a special team this year.

“You could just tell early on they are comfortable with each other,” Devlin said. “They have fun when they play, they have fun when they are off, it’s just a really good group of girls.”

One game separates the Cyclones from their first county title, which is just one of multiple goals the team still has ahead.

“(Making history) really added to us wanting to win it and knowing we’re capable, I don’t think that acts as a fear or a doubt to us,” Rathjen said. “Even though we’ve never won it, I think it fuels the fire for us to win.”

For the first time since 2019, Garden City and Manhasset will meet in a county final. Manhasset has played in Class C the past few years thanks to enrollment size, but in its first year back as a Class B team, Manhasset meets Garden City in the Nassau Class B final at Adelphi at 5 p.m. on Wednesday.

On the boys side, the Woodstick Classic between Manhasset and Garden City is considered the longest-running public school lacrosse rivalry in the nation. The girls played their 10th game under the Woodstick Classic name this season, which Garden City won 12-5, evening the series at 5 in Woodstick contests during the regular season since 2015.

Either Garden City or Manhasset has won 18 of 19 Nassau Class B titles in history.

The Nassau playoffs had a head start on Suffolk, but both counties have seen the higher seeds in control thus far. The higher seeds are 17-3 in quarterfinal and semifinal play in Nassau, with all four championships featuring the top two seeds.

Top-seeded Cold Spring Harbor plays No. 2 Locust Valley in the Nassau Class D final at Adelphi at 5 p.m. on Tuesday followed by No. 1 Massapequa vs. No. 2 Port Washington in the Nassau Class A final at 7:30 p.m.

In Suffolk, higher seeds went 5-2 in the quarterfinals for Class A, B, C with those semifinals set for next week. One championship matchup is set as No. 1 Babylon will play No. 2 Mattituck in the Suffolk Class D final at 9 a.m. on Saturday at Smithtown West for the first of four county finals at Smithtown West.