Seaford Girls Lacrosse Drops Heartbreaker in County Semifinals

A largely successful Seaford girls lacrosse season came to a close in heart-wrenching fashion Thursday.

Trailing 12-10 late in the second half of the Nassau County Class C semifinals at Adelphi University, second-seeded North Shore scored the game’s final three goals to escape Seaford’s upset bid with a 13-12 win. The winning goal came from USC-bound Amanda Johansen with just 34 seconds left and after North Shore won the draw, they were able to run out the clock and Seaford’s magical season, which ends at 12-5 and one game short of the county championship game for the second straight year.

The loss came with some controversy when after North Shore tied the game at 12-12 on Johansen's sixth goal with just under two minutes left, the referees whistled a Seaford player for calling an illegal timeout. This awarded the ball right back to North Shore and the Vikings never saw possession again.

Seaford’s heartbreaking one-goal season-ending loss to North Shore (13-3) came almost a month to the day that the Vikings suffered a 20-12 loss on April 21 to the same team that finished second in Conference 4C.

“They played outstanding,” said Seaford head coach Kurt Dankerbrink. “It was a tremendous effort.”

Early on in the game it appeared North Shore was on its way to an easy victory just like in April jumping out to an 8-3 lead late in the first half.  However the Vikings offense and defense both responded going on an 9-2 run to take a 12-10 lead with just over five minutes remaining on a goal from senior Amelia Taylor. Senior goalie Diana Rice made 12 saves including several key stops in the second half.

“She put all she had into Seaford lacrosse the last four years,” said Dankerbrink of Rice, who has committed to play at Division II women’s lacrosse power Limestone next year. “I’m going to miss her terribly.”

In addition to Rice and Taylor, also playing their final game for Seaford Thursday were seniors Jessica Torrent, Carolyn Lo Strappo and Jacklyn DelPozzo. The Cortland-bound Taylor finished her high school career strong with three goals and one assist while sophomore Emma Schait led the Viking scoring with four tallies.

Moments after the horn sounded and the team had shaken hands, Seaford players and coaches held hands in a circle symbolizing the concept of team and family that had been a central theme of the 2012 season.

“Everything we have done has been together as a family,” Dankerbrink said. “We took care of each other the first day until the end.”