By Tom Jordan
The Cyclones did not face Garden City in the regular season, but the Trojans went 9-3, dominated Great Neck South and then won in overtime in both the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds. The winner of the Nassau Class A final will play Huntington, the Suffolk champ, for the Long Island title. Huntington, the No. 5 seed entering the playoffs, is 13-5-1.
The Cyclones got here with their typical brand of precise play. After a 7-2-3 season, they picked apart Great Neck North in a 5-0 win in the first round, shut out New Hyde Park in the quarterfinal and then defeated Clarke 3-1 in the semis. In three playoff games leading up to the conference finals, South Side had allowed one goal while scoring 12. Molly Dreska scored four times, Lauren Koppel twice.
In the Cyclonesâ Nov. 1 win over No. 5 Clarke, Dreska, a sophomore, had a hand in all three goals. She scored their first, which started the scoring, and their third, which padded their lead in the second half. She also helped set up Lara Rolandiâs goal late in the first half, which snapped a one-all tie.
In the quarterfinal round, in which the Cyclones beat New Hyde Park, Dreska had two assists, Brianna Young had a goal and two assists and Christine Conway posted her fourth shutout of the season.
In their first-round win over Gret Neck North, the Cyclones got a two-goal game from Dreska and a shutout performance from Conway. Koppel and Carly Luba addded goals.
Koppel led the Cyclones in goals this season with nine. Dreska had eight and Melissa Gimpel seven. Young, Jenna Lucchesi and Emily Means all have scored big goals for South Side.
The Cyclones beat East Meadow 3-0 in last seasonâs Class A final, then went on to beat the Suffolk champ, Smithtown, 4-1 for the Long Island title. The kept on winning at the Final Four in upstate Honeoye, before finally stumbling in the state championship game, which they lost in heartbreaking fashion, 3-2.Now they have a chance to get back to the Final Four, but have a lot of work to do before they can think of that.
