Wantagh Girls Lacrosse Downs South Side

The Wantagh girls lacrosse team pout a damper on South Side’s Senior Day festivities Friday with 12-9.

The road win over the Lady Cyclones improved Wantagh to 5-0 in Conference B1. The next day Wantagh won a non-league battle at Suffolk County power Mount Sinai to move to 12-2 overall for the season.

Wantagh picked up Friday's win in Rockville Centre in large part due to the play of North Carolina-bound midfielder Paula Schmidt, who led the Warriors with five goals and an assist.

South Side head coach Meagan Healey said she knew it would be tough for her team to contain Schmidt, who is one of the most talented attack players they have faced this season.

“They have some excellent players, and [Schmidt] is definitely one of them,” she said. “We tried to contain her, but she did a good job with our doubles and slides.”

Wantagh controlled the game from the beginning, winning 14 of 21 face-offs and dominating the game's time of possession. The Warriors put three balls in the cage in the first 13:04, which prompted Healey to call a timeout to slow down the Warriors attack.

Wantagh head coach Bobbi Colavita said their strategy was to control the game's pace and wait for an opening in South Side's defense.

“We had to worry about possession of the game and controlling the pace," she said. "We were a little stronger and faster, and just tried to keep it away from them. We tried to concentrate and move the ball, and we waited for the defense to slip.”

South Side went on an offensive run after the timeout as Jackie Cifarelli scored on a fast-break and Micheala Lynch added two goals of her own to tie the game at 3. That was as close as South Side would get to taking the lead. Wantagh responded with two goals in the final minute to give them a three-goal edge at 6-3.

“We were able to play with one of the top-ranked teams in the whole state,” Healey said. “This game is going to build confidence for the kids, knowing that they can play with these teams. If we see them again in the playoffs, we’ll be ready.”

South Side had too many unforced errors in the second half, which led to several scoring chances for Wantagh against senior Lady Cyclones goalie Kelsey Gregerson, who finished with eight saves on 22 shots.

“Our first three possessions in the second half, we got down in their end but we couldn’t get any shots off,” Healey said. “We were a little unfocused, and that was the big difference in this one.  It’s hard enough when they do it to you, but when it’s your own errors; it just makes it even more difficult. In a close game like this, our unforced errors were the difference.”

Wantagh is next in action tomorrow at Garden City, who the Warriors are tied with for first place in the conference standings. The opening draw is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.