By Steven Zaitz
A tale of two halves ended with the CoA tale of two halves ended with the Commack girls soccer team having the best of times. For the Northport Lady Tigers, not so much.
With a start time of high noon on a blustery Halloween, the home Cougars scored against a strong westerly wind when striker Elena Dean put one past Northport keeper K.K. Howard with six minutes left in the second half.
The goal gave the third-seeded Cougars a 2-1 victory in the Suffolk AAA quarterfinal. Northport, the sixth seed, finished with an impressive 10-4-3 record, exiting in the quarterfinal round for the second consecutive year.
Each team dominated the half in which they had the wind advantage.
With the game scoreless as the first half wound down, Commack’s Breanna Mender launched a twisting, diagonal shot from 20 yards that eluded the outstretched glove of Northport goalkeeper Cara DeMarco. It found the top corner of the net, giving Commack a 1-0 lead at the half. DeMarco splits time in goal with Howard for Northport.
In the second half, Northport quickly pressured Commack keeper Olivia Bezmalinovic’s goal.
When the Tigers were awarded a corner kick in the 53rd minute, they capitalized. Northport striker Ava DeMarco took the corner from Finnley Wickard and fired a shot off the crossbar. Northport’s Brooke Heffernan and Bezmalinovic both went for the rebound, and as the Cougar keeper tried to secure the ball, Heffernan’s head, neck, and shoulder jostled it loose and powered it into the net.
As Heffernan and her teammates celebrated, Bezmalinovic lay briefly dazed near her net and had to leave the game. She returned minutes later, but Northport had secured its equalizer.
With the aid of Howard’s booming, wind-aided goal kicks, Northport maintained control for much of the second half but couldn’t get the go-ahead goal. With 5:19 left, Dean slipped behind the Tigers’ defense and fired a shot that Howard got a hand on but couldn’t stop. Commack had its game-winner.
After beating North Babylon on Nov. 2, the Lady Cougars played the mighty state champion and number one seed, Ward Melville on Tuesday, Nov. 5 for the Suffolk County AAA title. Ward Melville won by a score of 3-1 to win their second straight county title. Photo by Steven Zaitz.
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