Baldwin knocks off East Meadow

Baldwin erased a rough regular season on the girls’ soccer pitch by finding a way to get a shot past one of the best goalkeepers Nassau County has seen in quite some time.

Sophomore Stephanie Hernandez scored 1:27 into the second half to lift the fifth-seeded Lady Bruins to a 1-0 road victory over No. 4 East Meadow in a Class AA first-round playoff match on Monday afternoon. Baldwin, which advances to face top-seeded and defending champion Syosset in this Saturday’s semifinals at 11 a.m. at Cold Spring Harbor, avenged two defeats to the Lady Jets in Conference AA-1 play.

“It was awesome,” said Hernandez, who took a crossing pass from senior Victoria Guthier and slid a hard shot along the ground past East Meadow keeper Stephanie Sparkowski from about 15 yards out. “I didn’t think I was going to make it,” she added. “Then at the last second I kicked it in.”

The Lady Bruins (1-8-1 in AA-1), who’ve fought through adversity all season starting with the loss of their own standout keeper, senior Megan Doyle, to injury, gained some confidence and moved up a notch in the playoff seeding by battling Farmingdale to a 2-2 tie in the conference finale on Oct. 22. Hernandez had a goal and also assisted on junior Sterling Young-Wells’ tally.

“That was our senior day and we played well,” Baldwin first-year coach Lee Rogers said. “These girls, they just battle. I’ve been around the program for 10 years and we’ve never had so many injuries. But, when someone went down, someone else stepped up.”

The Lady Jets (4-5-1 in AA-1) controlled play down the stretch trying to get the equalizer but couldn’t solve Baldwin junior goalie Kimora Bedeau, who turned aside all eight shots she faced. East Meadow beat the Lady Bruins in the conference opener, 6-1, and three weeks later on Oct. 3, 1-0, behind Sparkowski’s 11 saves and junior Scarlett Espinosa’s goal. In the first meeting, Sparkowski, who handles nearly all of the team’s free kicks, had a goal, an assist, and four saves.

“Unfortunately we didn’t generate any high-quality scoring chances,” East Meadow coach Adam Hananel said. “I thought we controlled the game for the most part, but I don’t think we played particularly well. Baldwin’s a scrappy team.”

One of the keys, Rogers said, was Baldwin’s ability to limit the scoring opportunities of East Meadow junior forward Myla McLeod, who scored twice in the opener and had nine goals on the year, and keep Sparkowski’s long kicks from doing damage. He credited a solid defensive effort led by the foursome of seniors Elena Randolph and Brianna Lopez and juniors Danielle Palmer and Jahibo Louis in the back.

“They put a lot of pressure on us late in the game,” Rogers said. “The biggest concern was their goalkeeper. She’s got a tremendous leg and can hit the ball from one end of the field to the other. We were able to find that extra push when we had to.”