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Yearly Archives: 2015

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We should secure our homes and cars when we are not in them. Stock photo

Sun’s out, thieves out.

As Long Island heats up after a long, cold winter, so does criminal behavior.

We’ve been seeing more and more reports of larcenies, burglaries and stolen property as the weather warms up. It may tick up from here into summer, which would be nothing new in the world of crime patterns. But many of these incidents can be avoided if people would just use their heads.

That means locking our cars when we’re not in them, and not leaving purses and other valuables inside — and especially not in full view of every passerby.

It also means turning the cars off and not leaving the keys inside. One of our reporters once called the police after spotting an idling but empty car in a parking lot, the lights on and the driver’s side door ajar. About five minutes later, a man who may or may not have been the owner got into the car and drove away.

Leaving a car running and walking away from it is foolish, whether we are in a parking lot or in front of our own house. Why tempt fate?

We should also remember to close the windows in our houses when we aren’t there. This one is tricky because it’s hot outside and there could be a lot of windows open. But we should all be in the habit of doing it just like we are in the habit of locking our front doors, because open windows can make an easy access point for burglars.

Sometimes we cannot prevent a criminal from breaking in and stealing something, but we can reduce our risk by securing our belongings as much as possible.

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Corey Aviles, after forcing a turnover, races across the field and fires a shot across the net for a Patriots goal. Photo by Desirée Keegan

Being down 3-1 early against championship-caliber boys’ lacrosse program in Chaminade didn’t scare the Ward Melville Patriots.

The host team bounced back to tie the game in the second quarter and eventually edged ahead, holding onto a marginal lead to pull away with a 7-5 nonleague win.

“Chaminade is a great program,” Ward Melville head coach Jay Negus said. “It was a slugfest and our boys took a big step beating a powerhouse like Chaminade and I’m very proud of them. Even though it wasn’t as pretty as I would have liked in terms of execution — we had some breakdowns — we just wanted to put four quarters together and we did that today. We got the result we were looking for.”

Danny Bucaro maintains possession of the ball. Photo by Desirée Keegan
Danny Bucaro maintains possession of the ball. Photo by Desirée Keegan

Both teams came out on fire right off the opening faceoff, and Chaminade scored two quick goals before Ward Melville put its first point on the board to cut the deficit in half. The two teams traded possession with some passing miscues, and at the end of the first quarter the score remained 2-1.

The Flyers (now 8-2, 5-0 NSCHSAA AAA) scored again in the opening minutes of the second to edge ahead with a score of 3-1, but the Patriots (now 10-2, 6-2 League I) answered back with two quick goals. The first was a stick-side high left shot by junior midfielder Owen McAvoy to cut the lead to one. The second was a rocket from the right goal post by senior midfielder Corey Aviles after he forced a turnover in the Patriots zone, carrying it all the way down the field for the tying goal at 3-3.

“It’s great to get a big win against a school like Chaminade,” McAvoy said. “It’s the first game we really came out here and went balls to the wall — and put it to them.”

McAvoy added another goal off an offensive rebound that shocked the Chaminade goalkeeper, and Aviles tallied his second point with nine seconds left in the half to give his team a 5-3 advantage heading into halftime.

Negus addressed his team during the break and explained to his athletes that the game was all about seizing the opportunities when they were presented to them.

“You guys are taking that next step to be at that level with this team,” he said. “We got to give the defense a rest. Bury the ball and make this game out of reach.”

Still struggling to win possession at the faceoff, Chaminade capitalized early in the third to make it 5-4, but Ward Melville junior goalkeeper D.J. Kellerman came through with two big saves to preserve the one-goal advantage.

D.J. Kellerman attempts a save. Photo by Desirée Keegan
D.J. Kellerman attempts a save. Photo by Desirée Keegan

“I felt confident,” Kellerman said. “A little shaky in the beginning, but my defense really shut it down. I love them — they’re great.”

Ward Melville ripped another crossing shot to bring the advantage back to two, 6-4, and Kellerman caught another save to maintain the lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Senior midfielder Jake McCulloch rocketed a shot from nearly 20 yards early in the final stanza, and Chaminade scored once more a minute later. Kellerman made three big saves in the final minutes to keep the Flyers at bay and seal the Patriots’ 7-5 victory.

“It’s a big win for us as a program,” Kellerman said. “We had a tough loss against Northport [6-7, on April 22] but we bounced back. Coach did a great job getting us ready and we’re a hardworking team.”

What McAvoy said he thinks continues to lead the players to success is that ability to continue to fight, even when the team is down.

“We were fighting for ground balls and hustled all over the field,” he said. “We were fired up in the locker room and thought this could be a big statement make for us. We laid some bodies all over the field and really made them feel our presence.”

Aviles and McAvoy finished with two goals each, and McCulloch and senior attack Danny Bucaro tacked on a goal and an assist apiece, while Kellerman made 13 saves on the evening.

Ward Melville was scheduled to host Brentwood on Wednesday. The Patriots will travel to Patchogue-Medford on Friday, and the opening faceoff is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.

“We’ve been talking about fighting back against adversity and that shows the character of the team,” Negus said. “Today we showed that we can battle back against the best of them.”

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From left, Ray Palen, Gabriella Stevens and Mikal Oltedal in a scene from ‘The Man Who Came To Dinner.’ Photo by Michael Leinoff

By Charles J. Morgan

In the sometimes arcane lexicon of the theatah there is the term “chestnut.” It simply refers to a good or actually immortal play that is done every season everywhere. It has long-standing universal appeal, and is audience friendly even when translated into Gheg, Tusk or Urdu. Such a play is George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s “The Man Who Came to Dinner,” currently playing at the Minstrel Players’ venue in Northport for a limited run.

Set in 1939, the script is literally flooded with references associated with that era …. Haile Selassie, John L. Lewis, “Bubu” (Mahatma Gandhi), Charles Ross and even Noel Coward with a fast-paced output, wise-cracking, display of humor.

Director Ray Palen starred as the impossibly rude Sheridan Whiteside, a cultured, scholarly writer, pundit and author. Homer described Odysseus as speaking “winged words.” Whiteside’s words are winged too … laden with nuclear warheads. He demolishes any opposition with piercing, barbed onslaughts. Palen discharged his role as Whiteside expertly, consistently — like a lovable Falstaff. He is very seldom offstage and manages the signature wheelchair right up to the edge of the apron.

Michelle Torres plays Maggie Cutler, Whiteside’s long-suffering but capable secretary. Torres handled this role with called-up on professional aplomb even in a scene where she “quits” her job. Here she is still underplaying it, but with steely, scarcely concealed anger.

The Minstrels’ dynamic veteran character actress Maris Kastan is Miss Preen, Whiteside’s nurse. She plays out the dutiful nurse like someone hit with a baseball bat, but can’t figure out what hit her. That is until she dramatically resigns with a downstage center speech about going to work in a munitions factory. Kastan, together with Palen, is an outstanding example of getting into the essence of a role, making the acting real.

Banjo, a true slapstick role, is managed neatly by Ralph Carideo. He really eats up the scenery, combining an earthy Rabelaisian Vaudeville humor, delivered with punch and verve. Then we have Alicia James as glamor girl movie star Lorraine Sheldon. She is in love with one person: herself. Every line and move is promotional of a solitary object named Lorraine. She is frivolous, sexy, with a virtual murder streak … all of it with a compelling smile. This is not an easy role, but James handled it with perfection.

A triple role was held by Brian Hartwig. He was the eccentric Professor Metz in topee, tropical jacket and spectacles who delivers a cockroach colony. (Yes, they do eventually escape.) He has a  bit part as Expressman, but bursts into a key role as Beverly Carlton, a knockoff of Noel Coward done to English accent languidity with all the sophistication Noel himself could have brought. Hartwig’s range of talent was palpable. One wishes to see him more on the Minstrels’ playbill.

Constraints of space preclude mention of others in this massive cast, however, Evan Donnellan stood out as Bert Jefferson, Tricia Ieronimo as Mrs. Stanley and Jim Connors as her long-suffering husband. A curtain call bow was taken by Valerie Rowe who undertook the role of Sara the Cook as a last-minute substitute. Well done!

The Minstrel Players may be a little cramped in their present venue, yet they have expanded smoothly with this show. One sees a massively bright future for them. Break a leg, Minstrels!

The Minstrel Players will present “The Man Who Came To Dinner” on May 2 at 8 p.m. and May 3 at 3 p.m. at the Houghton Hall Theatre at Trinity Episcopal Church, 130 Main St., Northport. Tickets are $20 adults, $15 seniors and children. For more information, call 631-732-2926 or visit www.minstrelplayers.org.

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Workers clean up the section of Old Mill Creek behind Village Hall. Photo by Elana Glowatz

Old Mill Creek has been an unusual sight lately for those who are used to seeing the narrow Port Jefferson waterway choked with vegetation.

A contractor recently began working on the troubled creek, uprooting invasive trees and plants a few weeks ago and clearing the view to passersby. This week, workers were standing in the stretch of the stream behind Village Hall with an excavator at its bank. They are restoring the eastern half of the creek, which discharges into Port Jefferson Harbor.

Old Mill Creek has been polluted and dirty for a long time. Photo from Steve Velazquez
Old Mill Creek has been polluted and dirty for a long time. Photo from Steve Velazquez

Port Jefferson Village has a permit from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to install rock supports at the creek, replace invasive plants with freshwater species, remove built-up sediment that blocks water flow, install filters to improve water quality and repair a pipe known as a culvert that channels the creek under Barnum Avenue.

That culvert repair will alleviate some flooding issues downtown, because the pipe is largely blocked up and causes problems during high tide and storms when the creek swells.

A goal of the project is to improve water quality in the creek and, indirectly, in the harbor.

Last month the village hired Holbrook-based contractor G & M Earth Moving Inc. to perform the restoration work and will use a DEC grant to cover three-quarters of the cost.

Old Mill Creek starts near Longfellow Lane and Brook Road, passes the Caroline Avenue ball field and goes under Barnum. From there it goes past Village Hall and wraps around Schafer’s restaurant before running under West Broadway and into the harbor.

Over the years, invasive species, flooding and pollution have beaten up the creek. Hazardous chemicals that had been illegally dumped over many years at the former Lawrence Aviation Industries property, an aircraft-parts manufacturer in Port Jefferson Station, traveled down-gradient into the creek.

Beyond the current restoration project, the village has further plans for improving and protecting the waterway, including doing similar work on the half of it west of Barnum Avenue and reducing stormwater runoff in its entire 517-acre watershed area.

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Three Village Central School District is constructing a new building on its administration property. Photo by Phil Corso

A new, $1.6 million, 4,000-square-foot facility for maintenance and operations is rising on the North Country Administration property on Suffolk Avenue in Stony Brook.

Money from the recent bond is being used to fund the building, which will provide relief for the administration building, which now houses ground crew supplies, carpentry facilities and a paint shop in one of its wings. The district’s auto shop is a separate building also located on the premises.

The new building will mean that there will be more space inside the administration center for career and technical classrooms for the Three Village Academy, said Jeff Carlson, assistant superintendent for business services. Being able to provide vocational courses will save the district the fees it pays to BOCES, he said.

“We want to make it nicer for the neighborhood,” Carlson said of the construction. “We want to be a good neighbor.”

Though some neighbors might be disappointed to see the baseball fields on the south side of the building sacrificed, Carlson said the administration plans to spruce up the fields on the other side of the building.

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Suffolk County police car. File photo

Police say a man shot himself on Tuesday afternoon and his Coram house was intentionally set on fire.

According to the Suffolk County Police Department, a passerby found the man slumped over in his vehicle at Tanglewood Park on Howe Road in Coram and called police to the scene shortly after 5 p.m. Homicide Squad detectives found the deceased man, 67, had a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Investigation revealed the victim resided at a house that had been set on fire earlier in the day, police said.

Officers had been called to a home on Hartsdale Lane around 3:30 p.m. to what was then an active house fire. The home was not occupied at the time of the incident, police said, and no one was hurt. Arson Squad detectives believe the fire was intentional.

The respective squads are investigating the two separate incidents.

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A local family came out for breakfast to support a great cause. Photo by Jenn Intravaia Photography

By Ernestine Franco

More than 160 people started their day recently at the Butterfly Breakfast for a Cure fundraiser held at Applebee’s in Miller Place.

The $4,000 raised on Saturday will benefit DEBRA for America, an organization that provides assistance and education to families with children born with epidermolysis bullosa (EB). Young people who suffer from this disease are called “butterfly children” because their skin is so fragile it blisters or tears from friction or trauma.

After the event, Donna McCauley, who organized the fundraiser, expressed her gratitude to everyone who participated in the fundraiser, “When [my daughter] Kelly asked to take on a fundraiser for DEBRA of America, we were so proud of her for taking such an interest to give back to this wonderful organization that has supported our family for so many years. Living with EB is not easy and often people ask me how I manage to be so involved in so many things. All of my servers worked out of the goodness of theirs hearts and for service hours and did a great job. In case it wasn’t obvious to all yesterday by [the number of people who came to] Applebee’s … It is because of the love and support of my fantastic family and a group of friends like all of you. I am truly humbled by the turnout.”

If you would like to donate to help find a cure, please visit www.DEBRA.org.

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Whether or not we want to live to be a centenarian, most of us want to live the healthiest life possible with the fewest chronic diseases, medications, and impediments to daily life.

While exercise is one component of lifestyle modification, diet is an essential part, as well. The most surprising result, at least to me, is that it is unclear how much sodium we should consume. But before you start putting salt on your food, know that the research agrees about too much sodium being dangerous. What that number is, however, varies. What we do know is that the average sodium intake in the U.S. is 3.4 grams (1). This is greater than recommendations from the American Heart Association, which has the strictest guideline of <1,500 mg daily for most Americans; however, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) 2015 recommends <2,400 mg per day (2). The consensus is that we consume too much sodium, period!

Did you get question 3 on the quiz correct? Well, microwaving, contrary to prevailing thought, is not necessarily the enemy. It depends on which compounds in the foods we are testing.

It is most important to realize that healthy eating is not about individual nutrients, but rather about diet as a whole. DGAC emphasizes the importance of a nutrient-rich diet with a focus on fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains, fish and low or nonfat dairy. In addition, it recommends minimal red meat, especially processed meats, and minimal processed sugars and refined grains (3).

Let’s look at the evidence.

IS SODIUM THE VILLIAN?
Of course not! We all need sodium. However, some in the medical community would argue that “moderate” amounts of between 3 and 6 grams a day are okay. I am specifically referencing an article written by Dr. Aaron Carroll in the New York Times, “Simple Rules for Healthy Eating.” It was one of the most popular articles recently. While he does have good suggestions, with a disclaimer that these are only his opinions, I disagree with his third point regarding salts and fats. He believes that salt can be used in “moderation”; seasoning your food with it is fine.
In the article, he references a large observational study, the PURE study. Its results suggest that a high urinary excretion of sodium, >7 grams per day, correlated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality compared to 4 to 5.99 grams per day (4). But surprisingly, those who had a urinary excretion of <3 grams per day of sodium also had an increased risk of all-cause mortality. This study had over 100,000 participants, but there were significant weaknesses. For one, the researchers estimated the 24-hour sodium urine excretion because they only had one snapshot sample. Also, there was only one urine sample taken during the study, so it is not clear whether the participants increased or decreased their sodium excretion during the study.
Finally, urinary excretion of sodium does not necessarily correlate with sodium intake (5). It is considered a standard measurement, but it is still an indirect marker.
In another article, “Behind the Dietary Guidelines, Better Science,” Dr. Carroll argues that low sodium could potentially be dangerous. Here, he uses a study with heart failure patients (6). The results show that those heart failure patients who were in the lowest sodium intake group had more hospitalizations than those in the modest sodium intake group. However, those in the lowest group also had hyponatremia (reduction in blood levels of sodium) due to significantly reduced sodium intake. This most likely is the major contributor to the hospitalizations. On the surface, it looks like a good study, but once you analyze the data, it is not.
In fact, there are studies showing that lowering sodium has significantly positive effects. In one, lowering the sodium in pre-hypertension patients reduced the risk of cardiovascular events, including heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular death, by 30 percent (7).

FATS
In “Simple Rules for Healthy Eating,” Dr. Carroll also writes about fats, claiming that butter should be used as needed. However, the study he uses to substantiate this concerns replacing butter with high amounts of carbohydrates or other potentially unhealthy fats, such as omega-6 fatty acids only, not foods that contain good fats such as omega-3s (8). This is a flawed comparison since the substitutes are no better than saturated fats.

EXERCISE
Though some of us would like it to be true that exercise allows us to eat with impunity, it is a myth. In a recent editorial, the author mentions that obesity and disease are caused more by poor diet and that exercise, while substantial to overall health, cannot overcome this effect (9). The author goes on to say that the type of calorie is important; 150 calories of sugar increase the risk of type 2 diabetes by 11 times more than 150 calories of fats or protein. Even more horrifying is that 4 in 10 normal-weight individuals will be afflicted by high cholesterol, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Just because you are thin does not mean you’re healthy or “fit.” Poor diet has more negative effects than smoking, sedentary behavior and drinking combined. Thus, exercise alone may not be able to compensate for unhealthy diet.

MICROWAVE
The theory has been that microwaves destroy valuable nutrients. However, is that always the case for vegetable-rich, plant-based foods? According to the Harvard Health Letter of Jan. 2, 2015, cooking vegetables for a shorter amount of time with less water helps them retain their phytochemical nutrients better. Microwaving fits this parameter. In a study testing this theory with cruciferous vegetables, results showed that microwaved foods retain a significant amount of glucosinolates (nutrients), holding their own when compared to boiling and steaming (10). However, each method lost a substantial amount of vitamin C. There are a number of critics of microwaves though. Who is right? We cannot be sure, but food content is more critical than the type of cooking preparation, with some exceptions.
The bottom line is that we should focus on a vegetable-rich, plant-based diet with proportions that vary based on an individual’s goals and health status. The extremes should be avoided. We don’t want extreme exercise or extremes in different nutrients such as fats, protein and carbohydrates. In fact, low sugar is not good either; fruits contain plenty of sugars. We should not aim to eliminate a nutrient from our diet. Preparation of these foods in terms of cooking techniques is less important, except, of course, for charring animal protein and deep frying.

REFERENCES
(1) CDC.gov. (2) Heart.org; health.gov. (3) health.gov. (4) N Engl J Med 2014;371:612-623. (5) Hypertension 1980;2:695-699. (6) Clin Sci 2008;114:221-230. (7) BMJ 2007;334(7599):885. (8) Open Heart 2014;1(1):e000032. (9) Br J Sports Med online April 22, 2015. (10) J Agric Food Chem 2010;58(7),4310-4321.

Dr. Dunaief is a speaker, author and local lifestyle medicine physician focusing on the integration of medicine, nutrition, fitness and stress management. For further information, go to the website www.medicalcompassmd.com and/or consult your personal physician.

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Stock photo

By Elof Carlson

For the past four years I have participated with a writing group at Indiana University’s Emeriti House, where old-timers like me gather and once a month discuss what we have written. I much enjoy listening to the stories told.

A Norwegian opera singer described his youth near Oslo on an island in a fjord and how that idyllic childhood was shattered by the Nazi occupation. A linguistics professor discussed what it is like to eat with one’s hands in Kathmandu where table manners are very different than the world of knives and forks or chopsticks. A Spanish teacher described her adventure learning how to chop wood with a wedge. A journalism professor described sailing a boat alone from New England to Florida and back. Along the way we learned that some growing up experiences were frightening, especially those who were refugees during WWII in the Baltic states.

A different opportunity arose recently when my daughter Christina located the granddaughter of my Uncle Charles Vogel. I had seen him a few times as a child when my mother would visit him at his home in Brooklyn. He sold clothing door to door and he gave me about a dozen ties so I could wear them to my high school. My mother said he sold to gangsters. I never knew if this was part of my mother’s psychotic beliefs or real, but I downloaded this previously unknown relative’s manuscript called “Charlie’s story” based on a 1985 interview she had with her grandfather. It turned out he sold men’s clothes to Al Capone, Gaetano Luchese, Lucky Luciano and Albert Anastasia. He also survived a disastrous childhood accident in Bound Brook, New Jersey, when he was hit by a car that had him hospitalized for a year. Later he ran away to join the Barnum & Bailey Circus until his father located him. These family stories are usually oral and then forgotten after a couple of generations. But if someone types them up after an interview, they can be part of the delight of tracing our ancestors and seeing how things change over several generations.

Social history decays rapidly, and many of us have only scattered memories of our childhood. We know virtually nothing about our grandparents’ or great grandparents’ lives. If we have our DNA examined for selected genetic markers, we can identify different ethnic components (Asian or African or Middle Eastern or Native American). Each person who has a European ancestor is related to virtually every person in Europe if one goes back 2,000 years (something difficult to do for those who do not have a royal lineage).

All Native Americans in the western hemisphere are related to ancestors who lived in eastern Siberia about 15,000 years ago. The genetic crumbs of information of this past ancestry tell us little about who these people were and what they did. But what we preserve as memoirs can last for many generations delighting our descendants. Every time I open up a volume of Samuel Pepys’ diary the world of the 1660s shifts from history to eyewitness narrative.

Elof Axel Carlson is a distinguished teaching professor emeritus in the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Stony Brook University.

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Comsewogue's Sarah McKoy and Seaver Lipshie double-team a Deer Park player on the way to the Warriors' 17-7 win on April 27. Photo by Desirée Keegan

Comsewogue hammered out a 17-7 victory on Monday in a girls’ lacrosse matchup against Deer Park, dominating the home team and scoring seven unanswered goals in a nine-minute span alone.

Hannah Dorney, a Comsewogue midfielder, crosses into Deer Park's zone on her way to a double hat trick and the Warriors' 17-7 win on April 27. Photo by Desirée Keegan
Hannah Dorney, a Comsewogue midfielder, crosses into Deer Park’s zone on her way to a double hat trick and the Warriors’ 17-7 win on April 27. Photo by Desirée Keegan

With the win, the Warriors improved to 9-3 overall, with an 8-3 mark in Division II.

Comsewogue midfielder Jamie Fischer, a sophomore, won the opening draw and with the game not even two minutes old, freshman midfielder Hannah Dorney fired a shot straight up the center for the first goal. Minutes later, Dorney did it again. The score 2-1 after a Deer Park goal, the Warriors regained possession off a Deer Park save and senior attack Haley Lochren’s shot hit its mark.

Dorney bounced another shot in halfway through the first for a hat trick, then made it 5-1 with an over-the-shoulder shot into the left side of the goal before Deer Park managed to get on the scoreboard again. The Falcons scored again with 10:10 left in the half to bring it to 5-3.

Comsewogue rotated midfielders at the draw and continued to win the ball, keeping it away from the competition. Dorney scored her fifth goal of the game at 9:19, blazing the trail for the team to light up the scoreboard six more times, ending with a Fischer buzzer-beater.

Jamie Fischer, a Comsewogue midfielder, collides with a Deer Park player on the first draw of a game the Warriors' won 17-7 on April 27. Fischer scored a hat trick in the match. Photo by Desirée Keegan
Jamie Fischer, a Comsewogue midfielder, collides with a Deer Park player on the first draw of a game the Warriors’ won 17-7 on April 27. Fischer scored a hat trick in the match. Photo by Desirée Keegan

“Today we definitely did great on the draw,” Fischer said. “I think that’s so important because we definitely need to keep possession.”

Lochren opened the second half with two straight goals, the first assisted by sophomore Julia Tuohy. After a Deer Park goal brought the score to 14-4, Tuohy scored a goal of her own off a play that began with Fischer winning the draw and carrying it down the field. Fischer passed to senior midfielder Seaver Lipshie at centerfield, who lobbed the ball over to Tuohy. The sophomore stuffed it into the left side of the goal.

The teams got shots past the keepers a few more times, to give the game its final 17-7 score.

Dorney finished the game with six goals and an assist; Lochren and Fischer each added a hat trick; and Tuohy tacked on two goals and four assists. The win was a team effort, with three other players adding a goal apiece and three more finishing with an assist.

Comsewogue's Julia Tuohy carries the ball into Deer Park's zone on the road to the Warriors' 17-7 win on April 27. Photo by Desirée Keegan
Comsewogue’s Julia Tuohy carries the ball into Deer Park’s zone on the road to the Warriors’ 17-7 win on April 27. Photo by Desirée Keegan

“We have a lot of strong players,” Fischer said. “It’s not just one player, two players; we’re a team and we all work well together and we’re all strong together.”

The sophomore said the girls are “becoming less selfish.”

Comsewogue head coach James Fernandes agreed his team has a nice balance on offense and defense in terms of skill sets, and with a handful of underclassmen on the roster, he’s hoping their help will put the Warriors in a good position to make the playoffs.

“We have a very coachable group — the girls have done a great job and we’re building every week,” he said. “The younger girls are like sparkplugs for us. They do everything; they’re all over the place and it’s awesome. We have a seventh-grader out there and the girls, they thrive off her. When she makes a play, they love it.”

The team has three games left. First, the Warriors will travel to Shoreham-Wading River Friday for a game at 4 p.m., then will finish up the season hosting Islip and Miller Place. Fernandes said the team needs to win two out of the three, and Fischer thinks her team has what it takes.

“Our record is so much better than last year,” she said of the team’s 4-10 overall record last season. “We hope we’ll get into playoffs and I think we will.”

While Dorney thinks the team started off the season a little shaky, the Warriors have outscored their opponents by an average of almost 10 goals in the last three games, and will use that momentum to propel them into the end of the league schedule.

“Now, we realize that we’re good enough to hang with the teams that are usually at the top,” Dorney said. “It’s a good win to come up with, and now we have a big game Friday that we have to get ready for, and I think that we’ll come together.”

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