Mepham, Kennedy settle for draw

It wasn’t the result either team sought, but a 1-1 draw between Mepham and Kennedy at Cantiague Park on Thursday afternoon allowed both to stay afloat in the Nassau Class A girls’ soccer playoff picture.

Kennedy, which settled for its fifth tie in 11 Conference AB-II games, notched the equalizer 4:45 into the second half when senior Joslyn Barrera scored her team-leading ninth goal of the year off an assist from junior Isabella Infuso. Mepham took the lead on sophomore Caroline Keane’s goal, assisted by sophomore Kate McCarthy, with 7:01 remaining in the first half.

“I thought it was an evenly played game,” Mepham coach Janine Bizelia said. “We would’ve loved the win, but we’ll take the point. We’ve got such a young team with no seniors, and it puts us in position where we’ll make the playoffs if we can win one of our last two games.”

The Lady Pirates (3-5-2), who beat the Lady Cougars (2-4-5), 2-1, on the road a week earlier, got a dynamic save from junior goalkeeper Victoria Castela with 10 minutes remaining to preserve the deadlock in the rematch played at a neutral site. Kennedy freshman goalie Dylan Manger made six stops.

“One of the things we talk about, no matter what the score is, is effort,” Kennedy coach Roland Clark said. “Giving up a late goal in the first half didn’t help us, but we kept the pressure on and tied it.”

Five of the seven teams in AB-II advance to the Nassau Class A playoffs, which begin late next week. North Shore clinched the conference title, and MacArthur and Valley Stream North are also playoff-bound, leaving four teams in the mix for two spots. Cold Spring Harbor and Plainedge are the other hopefuls.

“Last week they attacked us from the outside,” Bizelia said of Kennedy. “Today they were trying to come through the middle with their two forwards. The adjustment was, we had to stop 6 [Barrera] and 8 [Vanessa Rodriguez.]”

Sophomores McCarthy, Anna Zomback, Lindsey Repper and Maxine Bresnaider led the defensive effort for Mepham, which played without junior center back AnnMarie Hagarty (ankle) and its leading scorer, junior Sarah Bayer (hamstring), who has five goals.

The Lady Cougars were also shorthanded, missing sophomore Jillian Conlon (four goals) due to a broken wrist. Their defense in front of Manger was led by Infuso, senior Nicole Levine and junior Rose Mehani.

“It was important for us to get at least a tie,” Clark said. “We’ve got five of them now. If we fall short of the playoffs, we’ll probably look back at a few games we could’ve won. But, no matter what happens, it’s been a good year and we’ve got a lot to look forward to.”

So too does Mepham, which in addition to more than a dozen sophomores has two freshmen, an eighth-grader and a seventh-grader. Its two youngest players had a big say in the first meeting with Kennedy. Seventh-grader Luciana Setteducate scored, and eighth-grader Briana Sayoc set up sophomore Maddie Pascarella’s game-winning goal.