By TONY BELLISSIMO
Freshman Nicole Benko sandwiched a pair of scores around a Nicole Hutchinson tally, and senior goalie Adrienne Crescenzi turned aside nine North shots to lead the way for South, which improved to 5-1-1. Junior Amelia Leas' second goal of the game with 25 minutes remaining wasn't enough to lift the Lady Spartans, who fell to 0-6-1.
"They controlled the game, but we gave them a little scare at the end," North coach Mike Fraser said. "That's been the case for us all year long. We're young and we're learning a lot. We're starting only three seniors and we've stayed in most games until the end."
Benko and Hutchinson, a senior, staked South to a 2-0 lead after the first half, but it could have been more had it not been for the goalkeeping of North junior Erica Kenny. All told, she made 15 saves.
"Erica's getting a workout this year," Fraser said. "She's played very well. We just haven't given her the kind of offensive support we'd like."
With five games remaining, the Lady Spartans are more than capable of making some noise and creating problems for opponents. In addition to the senior leadership they're getting from Callie Viggiano, Liz Rini and Kristin Greco, upstart freshmen Janine Volpe, Casey Boddy and Krista Carter are coming on strong.
"It's exciting to see some of the young players stepping up and scoring," Fraser said. "We want to win as many as the remaining games as we can. We want to be the spoiler."
As for the Lady Falcons, their narrow victory gave them a season sweep over North. It was also the third straight conference victory for South, which hasn't lost a conference game since a 4-0 setback to first-place Lynbrook back on Sept. 24.
"We're starting to come together," said Coach Stephanie Fries. "We're still working on some of the same things we were at the beginning of the season, but the communication and chemistry is a lot better than when we started."
South rebounded from the Lynbrook loss to beat Island Trees, 2-1, behind goals by senior Bridget Amitrano and junior Ali Hertling. The team then played well in a non-league night game loss at Farmingdale and beat Wantagh the next day, 2-1, on goals by Amitrano and senior Danielle Barreto.
"We've played well since the loss," Fries said. "Lynbrook's a quick team and they jumped out to a big lead. We played well in the second half, and the rematch has been our focus for a while."
Lynbrook visits South this Friday at 4:15p.m. The Lady Falcons hope Hertling, who sat out the past two games with an ankle injury, will be ready.
"We're going to be more aggressive on offense," Fries said. "We need to take some chances."
The pressure will be on the back line, but defenders Krista Siedlick, Jenna Hutchinson, Jackie Slevinski and Jill Moran have been solid throughout the season and will be up for the task.
"I'm expecting to meet Lynbrook in the playoffs," Fries said. "So this game is important for a lot of reasons."
