This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Farmingdale Girls Lacrosse Clinches Conference

The Dalers beat the Massapequa Chiefs, 14-9.

The Massapequa and Farmingdale girls lacrosse programs know each other quite well with the Dalers winning the last five Nassau County titles by defeating the Chiefs in the finals. The Chiefs defeated the Dalers in the 2005 finals prior to that stretch.

On Wednesday, Massapequa met Farmingdale at the Field of Dreams to close out the regular season before a highly anticipated postseason. The Dalers (13-1 overall, 7-0) collected the Conference A-I regular season title with a 14-9 win over the Chiefs (10-4 overall, 6-1).

Kelly McPartland led Farmingdale with four goals and Amanda Turturro added three goals. Kelsey O’Brien and Madalyn Pimental both scored three goals for Massapequa in the loss.

Find out what's happening in Farmingdalewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Farmingdale’s Krislyn Engleke broke a scoreless tie nearly 10 minutes into the game to give her team a 1-0 lead. Massapequa took their own lead at 2-1 behind consecutive goals from Danielle Doherty and Pimental, but Kyra Ochwat tied the score at 3-3 with a goal off of a pass from Colleen Reyonds.

O’Brien scored her first goal with just over eight minutes remaining in the first half, but Farmingdale scored goals from McPartland and Engleke to lead 5-4 after 25 minutes.

Find out what's happening in Farmingdalewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

After Pimental tied the game at 5-5 shortly after the start of the half, Farmingdale  scored two goals. However, Massapequa put in three more to lead 8-7.

Farmingdale then began to win draw after draw as they scored the games’ next seven goals to take the first convincing lead for either side. A big save by Farmingdale goalie Alexandra Gurecki on Nicole Boylan kept her team in front, 9-8, with under five minutes to go, helping the Dalers pull away for the win.

Heroes: Alexandra Gurecki finished with 10 saves and had a slew of clutch saves down the stretch to preserve the lead and led the Dalers’ offense score at will.

“Our defense was big down the stretch, especially against a team like Massapequa. Every save is a big one,” Gurecki said. “Everyone played well for us to get to the conference championship this year.”

Turning Point: The save by Gurecki on Boylan with less than five minutes left kept Farmingdale ahead 9-8. The save on the seemingly wide open net spurred the Dalers to pull away from the Chiefs in the closing minutes.

Quotable: “Both teams had this game circled on their calendars because it is such an intense rivalry,” Farmingdale head coach Shari Campbell said. “It was the draw control late in the second half that made the difference.”

“Farmingdale is a great team and we knew that coming into the game. When we were winning the draws, the momentum was in our favor but that changed in the second half,” Massapequa head coach Megan Zimmer said.

Bottom Line: Both Massapequa and Farmingdale may potentially receive first-round byes in the playoffs. Farmingdale won the Conference AA-I championship and is considered a favorite, along with Massapequa, to win a County title.

Key Stat: Farmingdale outscored Massapequa 7-1 during the last 12 minutes of the game.

Box Score:

Team Record
1 2
F Farmingdale (13-1)
5 9
14 Massapequa (10-4)
4 5
9

Goals-Assists: F: McPartland 4-0, Turturro 3-0, Engleke 2-1, Reynolds 2-1, Ochwat 2-1, Leone 1-3, Kolodny 0-1. Totals: 14-7. M: O'Brien 3-0, M.Pimental 3-0, Doherty 2-1, Kennedy 1-1, Sadoff 0-1, Boylan 0-1. Totals: 9-4. Goalies: F: Gurecki- 10 saves; M: Fiorinelli- 9 saves

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?