East Meadow beats Baldwin in PKs

After opening the season with one win in its first eight games, East Meadow is headed to the Nassau Class AA girls’ soccer semifinals.

The Lady Jets, who earned 11 points in their last seven Conference AA-I games and a first-round playoff bye, beat visiting Baldwin in a penalty kick shootout Tuesday afternoon after the teams played to a 1-1 tie through 80 minutes of regulation and 30 minutes of overtime in a quarterfinal matchup.

Junior Toula DeLeon had fourth-seeded East Meadow’s goal in regulation and also the decisive goal in the shootout. Senior Amanda Franzese and junior Allyson Clark also made good on their penalty kicks for the Lady Jets (5-7-4), who advanced to play top-seeded Massapequa in the semifinals this Friday at Tully Park at 4 p.m. Senior goalkeeper Jenna Borresen made 12 saves in regulation and OT, and three more in the shootout.

“We’ve been resilient all year,” Borresen said. “It was frustrating to go into overtime and then penalty kicks, but we stuck together. We’ve had a bunch of players go down with injuries, and it’s tough not having them on the field. But everyone has stepped up.” 

Losing key contributors like junior Isabella Fuduli, sophomore Alexis Vaz, senior Kristina Sanicola, and junior Sara Pellegrino was difficult, coach Adam Hananel said, but it brought the team closer together in a way. “Everyone else knew they had to do a little more,” he said.

DeLeon gave the Lady Jets a 1-0 lead 12:39 into the game when she settled a long throw-in by senior Megan Bender and drilled a low shot into the net. Baldwin enjoyed the majority of possession throughout, but the defense in front of Borresen didn’t crack.

“They all did a great job for 110 minutes,” Borresen said of defenders Bender, Franzese, senior Alexis Epstein and sophomore Danielle Michelini.

It remained 1-0 until just over a minute remained in regulation. That’s when an inadvertent hand-ball in the box gave Baldwin, the No. 12 seed, a penalty kick. Senior Caitlin Airey delivered for the Lady Bruins by blasting a shot in the top left corner to tie it and eventually force overtime.

Borresen, who had seven shutouts during the regular season including four in the last seven games, made her best save in OT when she dove to deny a blast off the foot of Baldwin freshman Jenna Annecchiarico. Equally up to the task was Lady Bruins freshman goalie Montia Moon, who played the second half and every minute of OT.

“You never want to see a game decided by penalty kicks, but we had confidence in Jenna and the shooters,” Hananel said. “We found a way in the end.”