Dynasty lives on: Northport field hockey wins fourth straight Long Island championship
By Steven Zaitz
Three wasn’t enough, so they went out and got number four.
The Northport Lady Tiger field hockey team — whose team motto is “never enough” — won its fourth consecutive Class A Long Island championship on Sunday, Nov, 5, beating Nassau champ Massapequa, 5-0. The game was played at Northport High School.
Senior forward Kenzie Bliven scored 20 seconds into the game off a long drive up the field and a pass by junior middie Caeley Monez. Northport would never look back, scoring two more in the first half – one by Monez and another Bliven.
The three-goal lead for the Lady Tigers might as well have been 30 as Massapequa’s offense was bottled up by Northport midfielders and defenders. Senior captain defenders Emily Maloney and Caitlin O’Malley, along with sophomore Nina Corbett and senior Sam Ferrara, tended to the backline and made sure goalkeeper Mariselle Camillone’s crease was clean for most of the game. Middies Sophia Cox, Lily Beamer, Ruby Hasbrouck and captain Madison Maxwell also played well on both sides of the ball. Camillone made two saves while Massapequa earned only four penalty corner opportunities.
Conversely, Northport had 16 penalty corners and fired 25 shots at Massapequa’s overworked goalkeeper Colleen Emanuele, as Julianna Tietjen and Mary Breckling scored in the second half — and the party in the stands and on the sidelines was on.
Tiger head coach Gina Walling inserted several of her bench players so that they could experience playing in a Long Island championship game.
With the Long Island championship in its hip pocket, there is still work to be done. Northport will return to Centereach High School, Walling’s alma mater and the site of the last two state tournaments, next weekend to compete for the Class A New York State title. If they win, it will be their third straight.
They will face Buffalo-area Orchard Park on Saturday, Nov. 11, at noon. If they are fortunate enough to win that game, they will play the next day against the winner of Mamaroneck High School of Westchester County and Windsor, which is a suburb of Binghamton.
