Mepham stockpiling conference wins

Mepham may have had its four-game winning streak snapped in a 19-10 non-conference loss to district-rival Calhoun last Monday, but the Lady Pirates are still riding a wave of confidence on the lacrosse field.

“We definitely planned a hard non-conference schedule with East Meadow, Division, MacArthur and Calhoun,” first-year coach Jim Mulvey said. “We may take some losses but they make us a better conference team.”

In the loss, the Lady Colts (6-3 overall, 4-1 in Conference IV) did fight for a 9-8 lead at halftime before the Lady Colts stormed back with 11 goals in the second half. Senior midfielder Emily Schmitt, one of three co-captains, and junior midfielder/attack Taylor Black each netted three goals, and keeping them atop the team’s leaderboard. Through nine games, Black has a team-high 29 goals and 32 points, while Schmitt has 22 scores and six assists. Sophomore midfielder Erin Gilroy has 13 goals and an assist.

The duo of Black and Schmitt combined for five goals in a 9-7 Conference IV win over Bethpage on April 4, and it was Schmitt who also turned in one of the more amazing individual efforts of any player in Nassau County this season. In a 13-12 victory over Herricks on April 2, the Lady Pirates scored the game’s final four goals, including Schmitt’s sixth and final tally at the buzzer. She corralled a Lady Highlanders shot behind the Mepham net and raced the entire length of the field in the closing seconds. She drew a penalty on her way up the field, and on the free possession, she dodged past a pair of defenders letting her shot fly with a second on the clock.

“That was a huge comeback against a team that’s above us [playing in Conference III],” Mulvey said.

Black scored four goals in the victory, while senior attack Samantha Trupo, a co-captain, had three goals and junior goalie Kaitlyn McCleneghan stopped seven shots.

The focus of the offense is to get out into transition and use the athleticism of players like Schmitt and Gilroy to score goals or set up teammates in unsettled situations. “We get a lot of [scores] in transition because we probably have two of the most athletic players in Gilroy and Schmitt,” Mulvey said. “And we try to run everything through Schmitt and Black as our point people.”

Occasionally, even the defense gets into the scoring column, with junior Rianna Ramos chipping in with a goal and two assists this season. Senior co-captain Kellie Gilroy netting a goal against Calhoun.

If there’s been a “wow” moment for Mulvey and the Lady Pirates during the first half of the season, it may have come in a 12-9 loss to Jericho, the top-ranked team in Conference IV on Mar. 24 Despite the loss, Mepham piled up the game’s first five goals.

“As a first-year coach I didn’t know what to expect,” Mulvey said. “But when we went up against Jericho we knew we could compete with anyone in the conference.”