Balance a key for West Hempstead

Despite the loss of one of the top offensive players on Long Island, West Hempstead girls’ soccer coach Mike Scaturro believes the team is ahead of last year’s early pace and will battle for the Conference A-III title.

“Olivia [Czavar] was a tremendous scorer and player, but we brought back most of the team and we’ve got an experienced junior class,” he said. “We have more balance, and if we can put the ball in the net consistently we’ll be in good shape.”

Replacing the 13 goals provided a year ago by Czavar, an All-Region selection, won’t be easy but the Lady Rams also won’t be counting on one or two players to carry the offense. Scaturro is confident a healthy Courtney Sills, a senior forward who missed the past two seasons with a torn ACL, will fill some of the scoring void. “Courtney’s going to help a ton,” he said. “She’s had some tough luck, but she’s very athletic and can score.”

Junior Nina Boria brings blazing speed to the forward spot and can also be a physical presence. “She’s super fast and gets a lot of scoring opportunities,” Scaturro said. “She’s unstoppable in terms of speed.” A position switch from defense to forward has panned out so far for junior Taryn Squiciarino, who scored a few goals in scrimmages. “She’s a finesse player who can get past defenders and create,” said Scaturro, who is also counting on sophomore Lisa Waterhouse to attack from the outside midfield along with junior Brittany Schimmenti.