The girls’ soccer team, still battling injuries to several starters, had to confront the elements this afternoon against rival Port Jeff and prevailed in dominant fashion, 2-0. The weather was nasty as a cold mist fell for the entirety of the game. The dingy clouds overhead necessitated the lights to be turned on at 4:00pm, but the play of our girls shone despite the bleakness. Our offense was tenacious, our defense was nearly impenetrable, and to top off a great afternoon, Brianna Stiklickas returned to the backfield for the first time since her car accident several weeks ago.

1st Half

The Bears offense assaulted the visiting Royals from the beginning. With fifteen minutes gone in the match, Michelle Hennessy nearly scored after volleying the opposing goal kick just to the left of the frame. Several minutes later, Hennessy had another great individual effort, beating several purple jerseys down the right side of the field before missing the goal to the right. Finally, one minute later, Emily Pius gave a great pass to Hennessy who found the right netting with 20:13 remaining in the half to give the Blue and White the lead. As well as the offense played in the opening period the defense pulled their weight as well, preventing Port Jeff from from ever truly threatening our keeper Danielle Pappas. | 1-0

2nd Half

The chances continued for the Brook in the second frame as Hennessy had a good chance at glory with 35 minutes left, then missed an opportunity on a breakaway with 31:16 remaining. The Bears seemed well in control of the game, but soccer may be the most unpredictable sport in the rain and a 1-0 lead can disappear with one unlucky skip of the ball. The offense seemed to sense this as they peppered the enemy goal with shots. With 30:17 remaining, Kierran Petersen struck a brilliant ball that was tipped by the goalie’s fingers, but had just enough momentum to carry over the goal line; however, the fantastic score was disallowed by a bogus offsides call. Petersen would not miss the opportunity the next time one came her way.

The Royal defense misplayed a ball from the foot of Emily Pius, leaving Petersen with a breakaway opportunity that she buried to give the Bears a commanding 2-0 lead. As Petersen ran down the field in celebration with a huge grin across her face the rest of the girls screamed, “Back to zero!” which has been her mantra since putting in an own goal at Pierson two weeks ago.

The two-goal cushion did not render our girls complacent, rather they seemed galvanized as they continued their onslaught. Within a two-minute span, Hennessy had three great chances at goals, forcing the keeper to make difficult stops. With 6:45 remaining, Petersen drilled a shot with her left foot that the netminder miraculously saved with her knees, then with five minutes to go, Pius took a lovely shot that cleared the outstretched hands of the keeper before narrowly missing the goal.

As stunning as the play of our forwards and midfielders was, Danielle Pappas (9 saves) may have exceeded them with her brilliance between the posts. The job of any keeper is made more precarious by wet conditions, but Pappas was equal to every challenge. Her moment of the game came on a Port Jeff breakaway with 12:54 remaining that necessitated her to sprint off her line and make a sliding stop that was eventually cleared by a hustling Stiklickas. | 2-0

Emily Pius assisted on goals by Michelle Hennessy and Kierran Petersen for Stony Brook (3-1) in League VIII. Danielle Pappas made nine saves for her second shutout of the season.

~ Newsday

Impressions

The Royals were lucky to lose 2-0. Three offsides calls, lucky stops by the keeper and missed opportunities kept Port Jeff in a game that we could have won 6-0; however, that should not take away from how well our girls played. It was a complete game by our squad as we controlled every aspect of the match from offense, to defense, to 50-50 balls. We outshot, out-hustled, and outplayed our adversaries from beginning to end. Stiklickas was fearless in the backfield and showed no meekness despite being out for most of the season.

Brannon Burke won nearly every 50-50 ball she was involved with and coupled that with several wonderful touches to attacking teammates. Christine Brathwaite and Madison Rylands completed our unyielding backfield with their aggressive and intelligent play. The play of Pius, Hennessy, and Petersen was striking as well. They were unselfish and unrelenting and deserved more goals than they ended up with. Mikaela Stiklickas, Julia Shi, Emily Shultz, Sarah Sullivan, and Emily Andersen kept a number of plays alive with their hustle. It was a solid triumph and one that brought our record to 3-1, good enough for 2nd in the league.

Notes

Michelle Hennessy is currently 9th in Suffolk County in points with 10 and tied for 12th on Long Island and 6th in Suffolk County in goals with 8. She has scored a goal in five of our six games this year.

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