Massapequa Field Hockey Manhandles East Meadow

Despite a first half that was a virtual stalemate, the Massapequa Chiefs girls field hockey team turned it on in the second half to take the Class-A County semi-finals from the East Meadow Jets, 3-0.

The win secured the number one-ranked Chiefs a place in the Class-A County finals this Sunday against New Hyde Park.

The first half saw both teams at each other's throats, but neither able to penetrate the other's defense. To say both sides were equally-matched would be an understatement.

The closest the half came to seeing a goal was when East Meadow's Ariana Ovadia used a well placed kick to block a shot by Massapequa's Kristin Yevoli with two minutes remaining.

However, all that changed in the second half when Massapequa's Kelsey O'Brien fired a beautiful long-distance line-drive straight into the Jets' goal just two and a half minutes into the second.

About four minutes later, Kristin Yevoli gave the Chiefs their second goal of the game, a close-up shot at the right-hand side of the Jets' goal.

A potential Massapequa goal with 13:58  remaining was overturned by the referee because of the ball being more than 18 inches off the ground. However, this did little to deter the Chiefs, who were clearly on fire by this point.

With 9:28 to go, Kristin Yevoli claimed her second goal of the game.

Near the end, the Jets tried to stage a comeback; East Meadow's Ryan Meyer passed the ball to Toni Turrisi, who made a close, yet wide shot on the Massapequa goal.

In the end, the Chiefs held onto their 3-0 lead to take the match.

Massapequa head coach Barbara Lowell said that once the Chiefs found their footing, they were unstoppable.

"I think the first half we struggled...it took a little bit of time to get our momentum going," she said. "We really used halftime to discuss what was going on, and we just worked together to change it in the second half. It was a big difference."

Lowell revealed a bit of her strategy for Sunday's championship game.

"We're going to play hard," she said. "New Hyde Park's a tough, aggressive team, so we're going to have to be able to beat them to the ball, and stop better than they stop."

Kelsey O'Brien was quite excited at the prospect of playing in Sunday's championship.

"I thought it was a really well-fought game," she said. "We wanted to win this because we get to play in Counties now, and we hope to go as far as we can. We knew it wasn't going to be an easy game, but we played like a team in the second half, and it was a really good win."

Kristin Yevoli said that a speech by coach Lowell gave the team the resolve they needed to win.

"The first half we were a little off," she said. "We weren't really in the zone, but after we had a pep talk during halftime, we came back in and we were all pepped up and ready to go, and we won."

East Meadow head coach Courtney Castle knew her team had their work cut out for them today.

"We were coming in versus the first-place team, so we were the underdogs," she said. "We held tough in the first half, but as soon as they got their rhythm and scored...that's tough. But we played hard, so you really can't ask for more."

Ryan Meyer said that the Jets tried to take it to the Chiefs toe-to-toe.

"We really put it all on the field," she said. "Massapequa came out weak, and we capitalized on that, but didn't get a goal. But they kicked it into gear in the second half, so there was nothing we could really do."

Catherine Masterson was proud that her team played the best they could.

"We were the underdogs today," she said. "And even though we lost, it was a really good game."

The Jets finish the season with a 6-9 record.

Massapequa, now 10-4, faces New Hyde Park at Adelphi University Sunday, November 7, 4 p.m. to decide the Class-A County finals.