Oceanside reaches first title game

Lady Sailors meet Massapequa in Class A final

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Stopped in six previous trips to the Nassau Class A girls’ lacrosse semifinals, second-seeded Oceanside finally got over the hump May 24 with a 13-9 victory over No. 3 Farmingdale at Adelphi University thanks to a quintessential team effort.

Seven Lady Sailors registered at least two points, led by junior Christina McCabe’s six (three goals, three assists), and senior Cassie Cesario’s five (two goals, three assists), and senior goaltender Taylor Passuello made 14 saves as they advanced to face top-seeded Massapequa in the county title game. Caroline Bleck and Johnna Leone had three goals apiece for Farmingdale, which beat Oceanside during the regular season, 11-9. 

“It a great achievement, but this is only part of our goal,” said an elated Passuello, a three-year starter who made some of her biggest stops in the second half after the Lady Dalers shaved a six-goal deficit in half. “We had 13 days between games and worked hard on stick skills, draws, and possessing the ball,” she added. “I think we dominated in those areas tonight.”

With his team leading 10-7 with 9:47 remaining but losing a little momentum, coach Ken Dwyer called timeout and had a specific message for the Lady Sailors. “I told the girls we can’t be done playing offense,” he said. “We had to play as if it was a 0-0 game and get a few more goals. The clock was in our favor, but we were starting to fatigue and it hurt our ball movement.”

Oceanside (9-7) responded after the break in action and put the game out of reach with three straight goals. Senior Jenna Doherty converted a feed from McCabe to make it 11-7 with 8:29 left, Cesario scored unassisted just over a minute later and then set up McCabe for the exclamation point with 5:34 to go.

“We’ve certainly evolved,” Dwyer said. “A big part of it is we’re doing a better job taking care of the ball. We’ve been preaching the team concept over and over and they realize how good they could be when they trust each other.”

It was the fourth consecutive victory for the Lady Sailors, who captured their final three Conference I games after starting 0-6. “We beat North Shore, Cold Spring Harbor and Syosset all by a goal,” Dwyer said. “Each of those games has its own story, but that’s when we started to play well.”

It took 5:26 for Oceanside, which never trailed, to jump ahead of Farmingdale with Doherty scoring off a pass from Cesario. It was 3-0 before Allison Shamir got the Lady Dalers on the board with 6:39 remaining in the opening half. After the teams traded scores, the Lady Sailors got goals from McCabe and junior Kaitlyn Rapp in the closing minute to lead 6-2 at halftime.

Junior Kelsey Williams scored twice in the second half. Eighth-grader Julia Schwasnick had a goal and two assists, and junior Alison Schwasnick added a goal and an assist.

“We’re a difficult offense to stop because we have so many different contributors,” Dwyer said.