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Mostly Cloudy Sewanhaka takes conference title
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Sophomore Gina Ragona scored 11 goals for the Lady Indians.
Andrew Vardakis/Herald
Mere percentage points kept the Sewanhaka girls’ soccer team out of the Nassau Class A playoffs, but little can damper the impressive showing the team had in 2009. Backed by senior forward Carmelina Mottola who scored 19 goals, the Lady Indians finished atop Conference VIII with a 10-1-1 mark.
Based on the current playoff format, Sewanhaka needed to win 90 percent of its games to qualify for the postseason as the conference champion. With a loss and a tie, the percentage was 87.5. “We’re looking to expand on this year and the girls really pulled it together after the first couple of games,” coach Joe DeSabato said.
Injuries threatened to derail the Lady Indians at the start, as sophomore forwards Sabrina Orologio and Taylor Vassallo went down with injuries in the second and fourth games, respectively. But Mottola, who also added a career-high 12 assists, and sophomore Gina Ragona (11 goals) kept the offense firing all season. “It helped out a lot after we had two forwards injured earlier in the year,” DeSabato said. “She came off the bench and [helped] pick up the slack.”
Defensively, the Lady Indians had a unique situation in net, where senior Marleny Romero-Toc and junior Monique Roberge both saw extensive action. Depending on the opponent, DeSabato adjusted the lineup card, utilizing Roberge, the taller of the two, when faced with strong shooters because of her longer reach. Romero-Toc, meanwhile, had the superior quickness and saw most of her time against teams that had an abundance speed on the field. When Roberge wasn’t starting in goal, her athletic ability allowed for a move to center forward, where she scored six goals.
“She has great skills at forward,” DeSabato said. “She has great forward instincts, phenomenal footwork and can shoot with both feet.”
Sophomore sweeper Jaclyn Wisniewski, along with sophomore marking backs Yvelise Moreno and Shana Brouder, anchored the back line on a Sewanhaka team that recorded six shutouts. “The defense did a great job locking down back there,” DeSabato said.
A 1-1 tie against Uniondale in late September jump-started a seven-game winning streak in Conference VIII play. It was snapped on a penalty kick with less than six minutes to play in the next-to-last game of the conference slate on Oct. 26, by Great Neck South, 2-1. “After halftime of the Uniondale game we were like two different teams,” DeSabato said. “The team just carried [the momentum[ over to the rest of the season.”
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