Late goal lifts Baldwin over East Meadow

With overtime looming between Baldwin and East Meadow in a Nassau Class A field hockey semifinal on Oct. 27, the Lady Bruins used a perfect play to punch their ticket to the county final.

Senior Christy Davis converted a penalty corner pass from sophomore Daniella Specht with 15 seconds remaining in regulation to give second-seeded Baldwin a thrilling 3-2 victory in a rematch of last year’s semifinal won by the Lady Jets in OT.

“We’ve been pretty good on the penalty corners all year and the past few weeks we’ve made it a focal point in practice,” Lady Bruins coach Mike Hoover said. “We have a drill that we call the ‘Perfect Play,’ where it’s the same pass and same shot, and that’s what won it for us.”

Specht, who registered Baldwin’s first goal on a penalty shot at the 26:18 mark of the first half, 40 seconds after East Meadow freshman Rebecca Homan opened the scoring, said she usually takes what the defense gives her on penalty corners.

“Lots of times Christy is the one who gets the pass,” Specht said. “I know she can score.”

Davis said her initial reaction of the goal, her 11th of the season, was disbelief. “Tears just starting running down my face,” she said. “I was really happy and proud of my team. I knew we’d find a way all along.” 

East Meadow (9-4), which captured the Conference II championship and entered the playoffs riding a six-game winning streak, trailed Baldwin 2-1 at halftime but pulled even with 27:45 remaining on a goal by senior Stephanie Regan. Senior Deirdre McIntyre gave the Lady Bruins the lead with 11:45 to go in the first half. 

“Just like last year’s game, this could’ve gone either way,” Lady Jets coach Courtney Castle said. “I thought we were headed for overtime again, but Baldwin made a great play on the penalty corner.

“It’s upsetting because our girls fought really hard and played like they wanted it,” she added. “I’m really proud of them. It was such a great season.”

Juniors Erica Homan and Isabel Aievoli were the workhorses on defense for East Meadow, which also got standout performances in the midfield and wing positions from seniors Victoria Bova, Kelly Clarke and Emily Leeb.

Baldwin (5-9), which struggled in Conference I and entered the playoffs mired in an eight-game slide, received strong defensive efforts from senior Kaity Kelleher and juniors Kayla Brown and Kelsi King. “Kaity is like a sweeper [in soccer] and has the ability to bail us out,” Hoover said of Kelleher. “She cleared the ball out of trouble several times today.”

The Lady Bruins, who lost 2-1 to Massapequa in last Saturday night’s title game at Adelphi, got some key saves in the first half from sophomore goaltender Kailey Brower, while East Meadow senior goalie Erin Callahan stood tall in the second half until the closing seconds.

“After the losing streak we had I honestly never thought we could get this far,” Specht said. “But we never stopped working hard and it finally paid off.”