Baldwin pushes past Oceanside

Baldwin had to be perfect just to qualify for the Nassau County Class AA girls’ soccer playoffs, and the Lady Bruins were just that winning all 10 of their Conference AA-III games on the way to a regular season conference title and No. 12 seed.

So maybe it wasn’t much of a surprise that the Lady Bruins (12-3 overall) turned one perfect pass and one perfectly placed shot into a 1-0 first-round victory over No. 5 Oceanside (2-7-5) last Friday night.

Just eight minutes into the opening half, Baldwin eighth-grader Maggie Thibault lofted a ball from the middle of the field down the right sideline, over a Lady Sailors defender and right on to the foot of junior Kelsey Cohen. Holding back just to stay onside, Cohen caught up to the ball and blasted a shot across the front of the net past Oceanside’s diving goalie, senior Leslie Toohey, for the game’s only goal and her 19th of the season. “It was beautiful placement,” Lady Bruins coach Darius Burton said. “[Kelsey] is so gifted and she’s No. 2 [in Nassau County] in scoring. She’s been doing it all season.”

The victory put the Lady Bruins into the quarterfinals, where they faced off against No. 4 East Meadow after press time. 

But the victory didn’t come without any scoring opportunities from Oceanside, who managed to pepper Baldwin’s two goalies with nine shots, including seven on freshman

In fact, midway through the second half, Oceanside’s Jules Sicker followed up a shot that Moon caught and momentarily jarred the ball loose. Earlier in the half Julia Duffy slipped through traffic in the box but pulled her shot wide of Moon, while another Lady Sailor missed completing a two-on-none rush missing wide as well. 

“We had chances in the second half,” Oceanside coach Mariana Winchester said. “The whole momentum changed. They were outplaying us but in the second half we turned the tempo up and started to be more aggressive. We made a couple of position switches that were effective at midfield. Baldwin came in and stepped it up. They came in knowing they wanted to win and shut us down.”

“In the second half, [especially] the last 20 minutes, we went more defensive minded,” Burton said, noting that his team’s alignment featured just one forward down the stretch. “We withstood the late Oceanside push.”

The Lady Bruins defensive effort was led by junior Marissa Rhoden and senior Tyra Harrison, who helped limit Oceanside’s clean looks at the goal. “Marissa and Tyra did a great job on [Julia Sicker] and [Marissa Colasacco],” Burton said. “I’m so proud of [the team]. They executed the scouting report to a T. We told them that it’s a new season now and seeds mean nothing.”