Sports

Wantagh Defeats Seaford in Neighborhood Girls Soccer Clash

Lady Warriors win playoff rematch on road to improve to 3-0 on young season.

In a rematch of last year’s , the Wantagh girls soccer team once again defeated its neighborhood rival Seaford Thursday afternoon to move to a perfect 3-0 on the young season, one they hope extends deep into the fall.

After Seaford (0-1) hung with Wantagh for most of the first half, a Nikki Sliwak goal off a rebound just 30 seconds before halftime sparked the Lady Warriors (3-0) on a four goal-run en route to a 4-0 victory at . Sliwak scored two goals to pace Wantagh’s offense, which was also included tallies by Brenna Connolly and Melissa Horn along with two assists from Kaitlin Kingston.

Sliwak got valuable experience as an eighth grader last year and Wantagh head coach James Polo is expecting bigger contributions from her this season as a freshman.

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“She’s got wonderful vision on the field,” said Polo of Sliwak. “She can put the ball where she wants to put it.”

Wantagh returns 15 players from last year’s team that finished third in Conference A-II at 9-3-3 overall with a first round playoff win at Seaford before falling to longtime Long Island powerhouse South Side in the quarterfinals. Polo feels his team has the ability for a deeper playoff run in 2012.

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

“We’ve got a lot of returning players so we’d like to win the conference and make a nice playoff run,” said Polo. “It’s a deep team this year.”

Seaford graduated 14 seniors from last year’s injury-plagued 2011 season that finished  3-12-1 competing in a challenging Conference A-1. Mooney said after Thursday’s loss to Wantagh that she liked the way her team competed in the first half but giving up a goal just 30 seconds before halftime “took the wind out of their sails” and wants a stronger mental toughness going forward.

“We need to fight for the entire game and not just part of it,” said Coach Mooney.

Seaford moved down to Conference A-2 for this season and will play neighborhood rival Wantagh again on Oct. 2. The Lady Vikings are captained by senior midfielder Gabby Kasolke and keyed defensively by goalie Lindsey Montemarano, who registered 10 saves against Wantagh.

Wantagh is next in action this Saturday at home against Jericho starting at 10:30 a.m. Seaford returns to the field on Saturday at New Hyde Park for a 10:30 a.m. kickoff.


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