Long Beach nips East Meadow on PKs

Long Beach used plenty of grit and determination through 120 minutes of its first-round Nassau County Class AA girls’ soccer game against No. 5 East Meadow last Friday afternoon. The Lady Marines (12-2 overall) pressured for much of the game before a final-minute goal in regulation by the Lady Jets forged a 1-1 tie that held up through multiple overtimes.

But after displaying so much grittiness, the penalty kick round was one of beauty for Long Beach. All four of its shooters — freshman Sophia Valentin, sophomore Grace Conway, junior Valeria Catrambone and junior Chrystal Posada — scored goals on perfectly placed balls in the upper left-hand corner of the East Meadow net. And after watching the Lady Jets’ third attempt sail over the crossbar, senior goalie Emma Gilroy dove to her left to corral the game-ending shot in the fourth round.

“We were the underdogs, but we did everything we were supposed to do this season,” Lady Marines coach Tara Wesselhoft said. “East Meadow gave us a great game.”

The victory sent Long Beach into the second round after presstime where it matched up with No. 4 Calhoun.

The penalty kick finish came on the heels of a back-and-forth pair of sudden death overtime periods and an extra 20 minutes in the first overtime, where both teams had opportunities to score. The best chance came with three minutes left in the first overtime, when Posada’s point blank shot in front of the net was guided over the top of the crossbar on a two-handed save by East Meadow keeper Stephanie Sparkowski.

The overtimes merely served to further build up a game that nearly had two lead changes in the final 50 seconds of regulation. East Meadow freshman Kayla Leary booted a direct kick deep into the Long Beach penalty box where Gilroy made the initial save. Two rebounds later, junior Stephanie Echeverry was able to finally push the ball over the Lady Marines goalline. On the next tap from center, Catrambone made a quick rush upfield, but her shot rang off the crossbar just 20 seconds later.

“We talked about it all season,” Lady Jets coach Adam Hannanel said of his team’s late-game score. “You never know when your time is going to come, but you’ve got to be ready and you’ve got to keep fighting.”

In fact, sophomore Vittoria Fuduli had a chance on a corner kick for the Lady Jets with less than three minutes remaining in regulation, but the kick curled off the side of the net. “Regardless of what the other team is doing, we have to play our game,” Wesselhoft said. “Every game was a build up to this point.”

And after scoring 51 goals during the regular season, it was clear Long Beach knew a thing or two about finding the back of the net. At the 68-minute mark, junior Katie Whelan looked like a one-girl wrecking crew, steadily working her way through several waves of the East Meadow defense down the left wing. As she crossed the 18-yard line and started to angle in towards the net, she tapped the ball from her left foot to her right then blasted it over Sparkowski into the top right corner of the net.