Clarke battles to the end

Clarke had an uphill battle against No.  2 Garden City in the quarterfinals of the Nassau County Class A girls’ soccer playoffs on Oct. 30, having dropped two regular-season meetings by the combined score of 7-1.

But that didn’t stop the seventh-seeded Lady Rams (3-7-3 overall) from putting up a good fight in a 1-0 loss, even without their starting goalkeeper, Hannah Zirkel, sidelined by illness and their top goal scorer, junior Hope Quinonez, out because of injury. The Lady Trojans only goal came in the 37th minute and along with being a perfectly placed shot was the only one to get past senior Annisa Deljanin, who stopped the other eight shots she faced.

Clarke’s best chance for a scoring breakthrough came prior to the Garden City goal when junior Nicole Russell blasted a shot from 30 yards out off the upper right corner of the cross bar that ricocheted out of the net rather than into it. Later in the game, junior Madeline Anderson was moved up to forward to help bolster the attack, and while the move didn’t generate a goal, it did create problems for the Garden City defense. “We kind of weathered the storm in the first half,” Lady Rams coach Becky Wachsberger said. “At halftime we told the girls to keep working hard. It was a good fight and I am proud of them.”

It took four rounds of penalty kicks after a pair of overtimes and 80 minutes of play before Clarke was able to knock 10th-seeded Manhasset out of the opening round of the postseason on Oct. 25. Anderson, the fifth shooter, blasted a shot off the upper right post and into the net following a save by the Lady Rams’ sophomore goaltender Hannah Zirkel to end the game. 

Clarke’s parade of scorers in the penalty kick session also included senior Dina Simonian, senior All-County midfielder Sam Goodwin and Russell. “Our keeper saved one penalty kick and the girls handled themselves very well,” Wachsberger said. “It was exciting because we had worked on [penalty kicks in practice]. We had possession the whole game, we just couldn’t score. It was cool and nice for the seniors to win.”

Playing in the top conference in Nassau County (A-I), Clarke squared off against the best teams on a regular basis and even during defeats tried to make it a learning experience. “We were preparing for the playoffs in every game,” Wachsberger said. “We wanted to get something out of every game to help prepare for the playoffs. I love this conference because it’s so good for the girls to face this kind of competition.”

Offense was tough to come by for the Lady Rams during the second half of the season, and part of that could be attributed to the absence of Quinonez, the team’s top scorer (five goals) who missed seven games, returned for the win over Manhasset and then missed the Garden City game. “Even if she’s out there and not scoring, she’s creating [open] space because there’s two people chasing her,” Wachsberger said.