Malverne-East Rockaway wins three of first four

A new era has begun for the Malverne-East Rockaway girls’ soccer team and, so far, the results are quite different from a year ago. 

Alexa Adduci, the assistant coach of the girls’ lacrosse team, inherited a group that only mustered one tie in 2023. But this season, the team has gotten off to a 3-1 start, including three straight shutout victories to start the campaign by a combined score of 12-0.

“We wanted to go in as the new coaching staff, letting the girls know that we were there for them and we all wanted this turnaround really badly for the program,” Adduci said. “So, we put a lot of hours in outside of coaching, trying to figure out how we could turn this around as the new coaching staff. We had tryouts for about a week and we really thought about where people could play.”

The season began with a 6-0 win over Sewanhaka on Sept. 3 and continued with a 1-0 blanking at Freeport three days later behind Nicole Buzzetta’s goal and 15 saves by new goalkeeper Kiera Stephens. The run continued with a 5-0 whitewash of Hempstead on Sept. 10 before the Rockin’ Mules finally surrendered a goal in a 3-0 loss at Uniondale on Sept. 12.

“After that first win, I think they trusted us and they believed in us and we went from there,” Adduci said.

Covid ravaged the team the past week – even Adduci missed the Hempstead game with an illness – leaving the team shorthanded against Uniondale and having its Sept. 14 game against Westbury postponed to Thursday.

Adduci implemented a diamond defense with senior sweeper Sophia Pappas, sophomore stopper Dayanara Jose Merino, speedy senior Alicia Thompson, eighth grader Scarlet Minnick, freshman left middie Jacquelyn Brienza and junior Danilynn Fardella, who is adept at clearing the ball with her strong foot, providing the coverage.

Stephens also had a nine-save shutout against Sewanhaka and Adduci is excited to see how she develops.

“She is an absolute beast,” Adduci said. “She has been killing it. She has a great mindset. She helps our defenders a lot. I’m excited to see what she’s going to bring to the table the rest of the year.”

The Rockin’ Mules are also getting a balanced offense with five players scoring at least two goals this season, including a team-leading three by freshman newcomer Alysha Lopez and sophomore Paulina Cuthbert, who had a pair against Hempstead. Lopez had two goals and an assist against Sewanhaka.

“She’s worked amazing with the girls,” Adduci said of Lopez. “She’s extremely aggressive. Every time that there’s a ball down and it’s a 50-50, we know that she’s going to be the first one to it. She always has that really good cross and has a lot of assists also.”

Senior Katherine Cronin scored both of her goals against Sewanhaka and eighth grader Ariana Chinchilla and Buzzetta also have two tallies apiece.

The Rockin’ Mules also visit Roosevelt on Friday before their rematch against Freeport at home on Sept. 26.