Calhoun returns to title game

Posted

A year after reaching the Nassau Class AA girls’ soccer championship game, Calhoun is right back in the finals and unbeaten in its last eight.

The Lady Colts, who captured the Conference AA-I regular-season title and earned the No. 1 playoff seed, knocked off Port Washington for a third time this season on Monday afternoon, 3-0, in the semis at Cold Spring Harbor High School and are 80 minutes — or longer if overtime is needed — away from a coveted county crown.

“When we play together, we’re scary,” Calhoun coach James Raucci said after the team’s 3-0 win over Baldwin in the quarterfinals on Oct. 26. “We’ve been surviving injury after injury,” he added. “Each time someone went down, someone else stepped up. That’s been the theme of the season.”

Calhoun will face No. 2 Massapequa in a rematch of last year’s title game on Friday at 2 p.m. at Cold Spring Harbor. Massapequa has won 13 of the last 14 Class AA championships. Calhoun prevailed 1-0 in each of the two meetings during the regular season.

The Lady Colts have posted three consecutive shutouts and an eye-popping seven during the eight-game unbeaten streak. Senior goalkeeper Julia Miguel has been nothing short of spectacular when called upon, Raucci said. Seniors Healy and Taylor Curcio are the catalysts in the midfield and senior Mia Advocate anchors a rock-solid defense from the sweeper position. “Julia does an awesome job,” he said of Miguel. “She’s gotten really good at knowing when to come out and challenge and when to stay back in the cage. She plays smart and we wouldn’t be the No. 1 seed without some of the big saves she made throughout the season.”

Calhoun’s three leading goal scorers, seniors Annie Coogan and Kathryn Healy, and sophomore Kerry Pearson, all got on the scoresheet in the quarterfinal win over Baldwin. “Baldwin just knows how to compete and had us on our heels a little bit,” Raucci said. “They made us nervous in the first half even though we scored early. Our girls got impatient for a stretch and got away from their game a bit, but in the second half we got back to playing together and playing our game.”

Pearson scored barely three minutes into the game, and Coogan and Healy scored a few minutes apart in the second half. “Offensively, we don’t really know where the ball is going to land and who’s going to bury a shot in the net,” Raucci said. “We have nice balance.”

In the semifinal victory, Nicole Devlin opened the scoring in the 14th minute when she converted a pass from Kristen Dobkowski. Coogan scored her team-leading 10th of the year with 10:46 left in the half and Pearson’s 7th of the campaign in the second half provided the insurance.