Lady Colts Soccer Knocks Out Top Seed in Playoff Action

Think this week’s 2-1 overtime victory against top-seeded Farmingdale by No. 9 Calhoun in the Nassau County Class A girls soccer quarterfinals was some kind of an upset?

Guess again.

Sure, Farmingdale came into the game with a share of first place in Conference I of Class AA, but the Lady Colts came in with some pretty impressive credentials of their own. Try Conference II champs. Try an undefeated regular season of their own.

Try a passing and ball control game that Calhoun had the discipline to stick with for 80 minutes of regularion plus two ten-minute overtime periods.

“We’re not a kicking team, we’re a passing team," Calhoun head coach Lori Biscardi said after the stirring overtime win on the Dalers’ home turf. “After Farmingdale tied it up during regulation, I was just hoping we would stay organized, think of it as 0-0 game, and play our kind of game. ”

The strategy worked. Strong defense from players like Jessica Benitez, Talia Charidah and Jessica Foley stymied vaunted Daler offensive talents like Kim Kolodny, Amanda Borstelmann and Colleen Reynolds.

An 11-save outing for goaltender Alissa Battaglia, who Biscardi called "the best goalie in the county," gave the Colts a dramatic last line of defense.

And the quickness and opportunistic work of forwards Michelle Iacono, Kristina Gandolfo (two goals) and Kayla Cappuzzo (one assist) was enough to rattle the net of a Farmingdale team twice – a team which had registered seven shutouts over the regular season and averaged 1.1 goals against.

The first half was scoreless, as Calhoun’s fresh legs gave their ball control strategy the edge against Farmingdale, despite the Dalers’ general size advantage.

Seven minutes into the second half, after two big saves for Battaglia, Cappuzzo fed Gandolfo going up the middle, after a free kick from about 30 yards out, and the Lady Colts were up by one.

Calhoun got a close call around the 25-minute mark when a hard shot ricocheted off the left post and squibbed out harmlessly but that set the stage for Reynolds’ equalizer at the 17:39 mark, from about 15 yards out, over the outstretched hands of a leaping Battaglia.

“That was a good shot,” the Calhoun goalie said afterwards. “Farmingdale is a very good team and they don’t give up. We knew we had a challenge ahead of us.”

But with two huge Battaglia saves at the 6:40 and 6:18 mark, the game went into two ten-minute overtimes, and the stage was set for Gandolfo's second goal of the game, 1:13 seconds into the first overtime. The speedy Colts forward overtook one defender on the right side, almost lost the ball but recovered it, and got a shot off from about 15 yards out across the goal mouth for the 2-1 lead.

It was left for the Colts to make that score stand for 8:47 of the first overtime and ten minutes of the second, and rush the field in a victory celebration when the clock ran out on Farmingdale’s season.

“I told our kids from the beginning to have confidence,” Biscardi said after the game. “Even though we’re in Conference II, we’re a Conference I team.”

Calhoun advances to the semifinals on Friday against No. 4 rival Mepham at Denton Field.