Oceanside topped in playoff opener

Although Oceanside fell to Farmingdale 4-1 in a Nassau Class AA girls’ soccer first-round playoff loss, the team’s 2017 campaign pivoted on two 1-0 defeats to Baldwin decided by inches.

A Sept. 18 road loss to Oceanside’s neighborhood rival featured sophomore goalkeeper Mary Cecil deflecting a shot that was netted on a rebound for the winning goal. In a rematch at home on Oct. 16, the Lady Sailors, as in the first game, hit the crossbar or post twice and later fell on a penalty kick.

For coach Marianna Winchester, these league losses likely dashed all hope of returning to Conference AA-I next season, after her team won just two matches last year and transferred to AA-II. 

“Those games certainly could have ended in ties or wins instead, but we just didn’t have the luck,” said Winchester, whose team battled seventh-seeded Farmingdale in the playoffs, trailing 2-1 with seven minutes remaining on Oct. 23.

Sophomore striker Luigina Serrao led the team with eight goals and two assists on the season and could have racked up more points after striking the goal post six times in the second half of the season. Three of Serrao’s goals came in a 7-1 rout of Valley Stream Central on Sept. 11.

Center midfielder Alexa Mihale had seven goals and three assists in 11 games, and her season-long consistency, especially her pinpoint passes, made the senior captain the team’s best overall player, Winchester said.

“Alexa was able to distribute the ball well and cause other girls to score off of her assists,” she added.

Comprised of mostly juniors and seniors, the Lady Sailors went 3-1 out of the gate, with wins against Port Washington, Valley Stream Central and Herricks. They also rode a three-game winning streak in early October before closing the regular season with defeats to Baldwin and Farmingdale.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be an easy season, but I was hoping to do a little bit better,” Winchester said.

The upperclassmen-heavy team included senior forward Lauren Rullo, who employed her speed as a track scholarship hopeful to notch five goals and five assists.

On the backline before Cecil, who racked up 67 saves, was a pair of skilled senior starters Julia Burns and Grace O’Rourke, who provided stability to a squad of 10 defenders. 

Winchester routinely rotated her outside backs, whose best performers included Michelle Gomez and fellow junior Kaitlyn Hennig, and substitutes junior Lauren Boschert and senior Hannah Mascuch.

“They’ve been together long enough that they worked fairly well together, and for the most part we held our own in the backfield,” Winchester said.

As the longtime coach looks to next season, she will demand great consistency from her experienced players that will include about a dozen seniors.  

“We can’t look at this season and say ‘we should or could have won that game,’” she said. “We have to win those games. The games we have the advantage of winning, we have to win the first half of the season, and can’t always say we’ll come back in the second half of the season.”