Growing pains for Long Beach

After ending a lengthy playoff drought with a senior-laden team last year, Long Beach girls’ soccer is building toward future success in 2014 as younger players become the new leaders.

The Lady Marines graduated seven senior starters from 2013 team that went 5-6-1 and made the program’s first playoff appearance in two decades before falling to MacArthur 3-1 in the Class AA quarterfinals. The biggest graduation loss from the breakthrough campaign was All-State forward Shannon Horgan, who is now playing on the collegiate level at Clemson.

“We literally have a completely new team,” said third-year Long Beach head coach Tara Wesselhoft, who has been involved with the program for the last 12 years. “It is a rebuilding year.”

Long Beach is experiencing growing pains out of the gate dropping its first five matches, but Wesselhoft is happy with how her team is competing despite the results not going their way on the scoreboard.

“They are remaining very positive,” said Wesselhoft a day after a 4-0 loss to Farmingdale on Sept. 19 dropped the Marines to 0-5. “They don’t give up.”

Seniors leading a team comprised mainly of sophomores are twin sister co-captains Jacqueline and Melissa Marry. Other seniors who were key contributors in last year’s successful season are forwards Molly Pfaff and Tara Murphy.

Versatile sophomores who all started last year and are leading the youth movement include sweeper/midfielder Kelly DiResto, midfielder/forward Valeria Catrambore and midfielder/sweeper Chrystal Posada. Catrambore netted the game tying and winning goal in a 5-3 first round overtime win against Mepham last year. DiResto assisted on a goal scored by Katie Whelan in Long Beach’s season-opening 2-1 loss to Mepham.

Wesselhoft’s young squad also includes freshman misfielder/forward Grace Conway and eighth grade midfielder Sophia Valentine.

“It is like starting from scratch,” said Wesselhoft of her many new players in the starting lineup. “

A key loss for Long Beach from last year was senior goalie Shauna Spruiell. Taking over the netminder duties for the first time in 2014 is sophomore Mary Elizabeth McCourt, who started on JV as a freshman and was also brought up to varsity. McCourt recorded 16 saves in a 2-0 loss to Herricks on Sept. 17 and 13 stops in a 5-1 setback to Syosset on Sept. 12. 

“She will dive into anything,” said Wesselhoft of McCourt. “She continues to get better.”

After facing Plainview JFK to kick off the week, Long Beach will be at the midway point of the season. The Lady Marines then have an Oct. 1 road rematch with Syosset on Oct. 1 before returning home to face Baldwin on Oct. 6 at 4:30 p.m. Whatever Long Beach’s final record end up being, Wesselhoft is hoping to see steady improvement that will carry over into 2015.

“They don’t stop playing, “ she said of her players’ determination. “Regardless of if we win or lose we need to get better each game.”