South Side beaten in PKs

Eighty minutes of regulation time and another 30 minutes of overtime wasn’t enough to separate defending champion South Side and Garden City in Tuesday’s Nassau County Class A girls’ soccer title game at Tully Park.

Though the Lady Cyclones dominated possession throughout, Garden City goalkeeper Taylor Carpentier was at the top of her game and made 16 saves including a diving stop on Victoria Reis with less than a minute remaining in the fourth and final OT. Scoreless heading into penalty kicks, the Lady Trojans prevailed by converting all five of their chances in the shootout.

Only Garden City (two) and South Side (26) have captured county Class A titles in the last 28 years.

“I thought we played a tremendous game,” South Side coach Shannon McEntee said. “We controlled the ball just like we wanted and played strong defense. Their goalie made some big saves and Sarah [McCarthy] was just as big for us. 

“Anything can happen when you get to penalty kicks,” she added. “It’s extremely disappointing because we played a great game and had a great season.”

Top-seeded South Side (16-2-1), which was seeking a third straight New York State championship, split regular-season meetings with No. 2 Garden City with each team winning on the road.

Neither defense or goalie cracked in 110 minutes of play in the rubber match. South Side’s back line was led by Jessica Hawley, Kelsey Ford, Allie Ford and Juliana Pellegrini, while Garden City’s defense of Caroline Beaty, Kerry Defliese, Colette Seel and Megan Seel stood its ground. McCarthy made 11 saves.

In order, Katherine Malhame, Beaty, Haley O’Hanlon, Deanna DiPierro, and Kelly George converted their shootout tries for the Lady Trojans, who advanced to the Long Island Class A championship game this Saturday. Christina Klaum, Keri Cavallo and Stephanie Leonardo netted penalty kicks for South Side.

The Lady Cyclones reached the final by knocking off Carey, Island Trees, and Bellmore-JFK.