Fortunato's Late Goal Too Much For Flaming Arrows

Erin McNulty had done all she could to keep Sachem's Class AA semifinal match with No. 2 Northport scoreless, as the teams looked dead set for overtime.

But with one quick move and a blistering strike into the side of the net, Cortney Fortunato supplied all the offense the Tigers would need to advance to Wednesday's county title game.

"The girl made a great move and put it where the goalkeeper didn’t even have a chance," said Sachem head coach Claude Amballobieta. "It was a fantastic far post shot. From my angle it looked like it was side netting. She made a great initial move and wasted no time pulling the trigger and the ball was in the back of the net."

Fortunado's brilliant shot from 19 yards out beat McNulty with 5:32 to play in regulation gave Northport (14-1-1) a 1-0 victory over Sachem North on Saturday.

"We’ve been advancing sometimes on one opportunity," he said. "The Northport girl came up big and put the ball in the back of the net when time was in the waning moments."

Prior to Fortunado's goal, McNulty had continued to keep the Flaming Arrows in the game by quelling Northport's scoring opportunities. With just under 17 minutes to play in the first half, she stopped Aaliya Ingram's hard shot from six yards away without allowing a rebound. She made 11 saves in all.

"She keeps us in games sometimes we have no business being in," said Amballobieta. "Our defense held strong, it looked like we were going to overtime, and it came down to one opportunity."

Sachem (11-5-1) pressed on after the goal but was unable to muster up a clean opportunity against the Tigers' Jessica Rom, who made four saves.

Despite being eliminated, Amballobieta was proud of the way his team responded in the face of adversity, especially in the postseason. His girls went into Hauppauge last week and upset the Eagles before winning a thrilling contest on Wednesday on a .

"This is a tremendous success," he said of their season. "Going into the season our goal is to make the playoffs and then hopefully try to jell and be playing well in the postseason. We did. We pulled off a big upset against Hauppauge. I think the further we get from this game, the happier we’ll be with our season. Right now the wound is still fresh, but as we look back, we’re going to be happy with where we wound up, being able to get into to the semis."

Northport advances to the finals, where they await the winner of the other semifinal between West Islip and Ward Melville, the only team to defeat them so far this year. That game will take place on Wednesday evening at 6:30 p.m. at Dowling Sports Complex.