Pearl River, Nanuet Field Hockey Teams Tie

The Pearl River field hockey team traveled to Nanuet Monday hoping to avenge a loss from earlier in the season. The best the Pirates could manage is a 1-1 tie.

"Ties are very frustrating," said Pirate senior tri-captain Erin Garvey. "Ties happen often in field hockey. Only in the playoffs do we have overtime and shoot-outs,"

The Pirates led early on after senior tri-captain Shannon McKiernan put the first goal on the board with 12:11 left in the first half.

"I crossed it hoping someone would get it in. It hit off the foot of a Nanuet player and went in," explained McKiernan. "As one of the captains, I try keep things positive. I make sure everyone is having fun and bonding but also working hard."

During the last minute of the first half, it appeared that Nanuet had tied the game. The goal was disallowed as the ball hit off the foot of a Nanuet player before going in.

Nanuet got a tying goal that counted about seven minutes into the second half. With 22:47 left, Alyssa Finger scored the goal with a double assist from sisters Katie and Megan Fitzgerald.

After that, both defenses stepped it up and while the Pirates had five shots on goal during the second half, the Knights' goalie Stephanie Levy made five nice saves to add to her three saves from the first half. 

"Our defense is great," Levy said. "They keep us in the game."

Pearl River goalie Adrienne Ammirati held up her end of the tie with three saves on four Nanuet shots on goal.

Pearl River Coach Shane Carlacci said her team is playing well together.

"The team played in both a winter and summer league so the girls are accustomed to playing together," Carlacci said. "They really bonded."

Nanuet Coach Karen Leitner discussed playing 60 minutes only to have the game end up in a tie. Only during the playoffs (where a winner must be declared so that one team can move on) are there two five-minute overtime periods. If the game is still tied after that, there is a shoot-out during which five different players on each team attempt to score.

"I can't stand a tie," Leitner said. "We played our heart out to tie! I don't know why we haven't re-visited changing the rules so that during the regular season we play by the same rules as the playoffs. If a team makes the playoffs, they need to spend a lot of time preparing for overtime and shoot-outs. I think we probably don't have overtime during the regular season because the JV plays right after us, and if we took longer then it would get too dark for them to play."

Pearl River will be home on Wednesday at 4 pm as they take on Clarkstown North.

Team Records
Pearl River: 3-4-1; Nanuet: 5-4-2