Fast start propels Oceanside

A little confidence heading into the Nassau Class A girls’ lacrosse playoffs proved big for Oceanside.

The Lady Sailors, who navigated some rough waves during the regular season in Conference I, beat Kellenberg in a prep for the playoffs and parlayed the momentum into a 12-7 victory over visiting Port Washington in a first-round matchup on May 13.

Sophomore Christina McCabe scored two of her five goals 38 seconds apart within the first three minutes as fourth-seeded Oceanside (8-8) took advantage of an early Lady Vikings penalty and never looked back. Sophomore Alison Schwasnick added a goal and three assists, while Kelsey Williams and Kaitlyn Rapp, also sophomores, scored twice. Junior goalie Taylor Passuello made 10 saves.

“Our goal today was to come out strong and establish ourselves as the team to beat,” Oceanside coach Ken Dwyer said. “Port Washington had a tremendous season and came in here with a lot of confidence.

“We’ve played some good games, even against the tougher teams,” he added. “When you’re a fairly young team in Conference I, it can be a struggle.”

The Lady Vikings got two goals and two assists from Ali Hoffman, and a goal and an assist from Rebecca Rosen and Gabrielle Friedman.

McCabe, who opened the scoring off a feed from Schwasnick at the 2:25 mark and then cashed in a pass from Williams at 3:13, said Oceanside’s 11-8 non-conference win over Kellenberg on May 8 not only snapped a seven-game slide but also boosted its confidence level. “We were so pumped after beating Kellenberg,” said McCabe, who scored three times in the second half to help the hosts pull away. “Getting those early goals today helped get the nerves out.”

Williams and Schwasnick followed McCabe’s two early goals and Oceanside built a 4-0 advantage with just over six minutes gone. Port Washington (10-4) responded by scoring four of the next five and got within 5-4 with 5:40 left in the opening half on Olivia Ressa’s tally, however, the Lady Sailors answered with junior Cassie Cesario setting up Rapp and eighth-grader Lucia Alamia and led 7-5 at halftime.

“The halftime plan was just to continue doing what we were doing,” Dwyer said. “We had a pretty successful first half. We moved the ball well, and any time there’s better ball movement you’re a better lacrosse team.

“They had some aggressive players we wanted to key on defensively and I thought we did a pretty good job,” he added.

After Williams and Hoffman traded goals to open the second half, Oceanside scored three straight and held a comfortable 11-5 lead with less than seven minutes remaining. Port Washington had two second-half goals erased due to crease violations. Senior Kristen Ekstrom and juniors Courtney Capobianco, Barbara Pepe and Kerry Flavin led the defensive effort for the Lady Sailors, who advanced to face top-seeded Syosset in the semifinals.

“The girls wanted another shot at Syosset and they’ve earned it,” Dwyer said. “Syosset beat us 12-9 at their place a few weeks ago in a game we didn’t possess the ball nearly as much as we could have.”