Long Beach writing Cinderella story

Long Beach and North Shore produced a pair of early Cinderella stories in the Nassau Class A girls’ soccer playoff bracket, working overtime and beyond to eliminate third-seeded South Side and No. 6 Mepham, respectively, to set up a rare quarterfinal meeting between seeds 11 and 14.

On Saturday morning, in a back-and-forth match at North Shore, the visitors finally broke through with 15:46 remaining in regulation when freshman Ava Kolb scored from 30 yards out with a perfectly placed shot just under the crossbar, and Long Beach held on for a 1-0 victory and a spot in the semifinals for the first time in program history.

“We didn’t want to go to overtime and penalty kicks again, but it was getting close,” said Kolb, who delivered one of six successful penalty kicks for the Marines in their stunning victory over two-time defending county champion South Side three days earlier. “I knew as soon as I hit the ball it had a good chance to go in,” she added. “This feels amazing.”

Long Beach, which captured the Conference A-III title, won its 14th consecutive game since a season-opening loss to Lynbrook and advanced to face No. 2 Garden City in the semifinals on Wednesday. Goalkeepers Alexis Richards (14) of Long Beach and Meredith Papiro of North Shore combined for 27 saves.

“Both goalies played great and I told our girls I thought it was going to take a shot from far off to beat their keeper because she’s quick,” said Marines second-year coach Ashley Castanio, a former standout goalkeeper at Oceanside as well as Stony Brook University. “I was hopeful that was all we were going to need,” she added. “Alexis has been lights-out in goal for us. She’s been aggressive and communicating well with the defense.”

The Vikings (5-7-2) had their share of scoring chances in each half and made a significant push in the 15 minutes prior to Kolb’s goal but Richards, a sophomore who made 24 saves in the historic win over South Side, stood tall behind a defense led by sophomore Aysu Unver, juniors Jocelyn Bravo, and Emma Larson, freshman Jaymes Lind, and down the stretch Nassau’s leading scorer senior Samantha Kolb.

“It’s the postseason and everything is different,” North Shore coach Lauren Gotta said. “It doesn’t matter what conference you were in when you get here and everyone is playing hard and giving their all

“I thought we played well in both halves,” she added. “They caught us in transition and that’s something we’ve had trouble with at times. We didn’t get back fast enough on their goal. She [Ava Kolb] had time and space and hit a good ball.”

Senior Kylee Colbert, junior Sofia Martini and three sophomores — Ally Basile, Crystal Knoell and Sam DiBenedetto scored penalty kick goals for the Vikings in their upset of Mepham.

Long Beach went two rounds of shooters at South Side, which eliminated the Marines 8-0 in the same spot a year ago. Samantha Kolb scored in regulation and also converted her PK. Junior Rylee Roberts, sophomore Kylie Dowler, Lind and Bravo also found the back of the net.