Lindenhurst Girls Upset Sachem East, 4-2

Two late first half goals by Sachem East were not enough to hold off a surging Lindenhurst side in the second half as the Bulldogs lived up to their moniker scoring four straight to pull out a 4-2 road win Monday afternoon.

“These girls have been playing with their hearts and souls,” Lindenhurst head coach Ed Colgan said. “I told them they could win this game, it was just a matter of believing in themselves. We finally put it together offensively and came up with a great half of soccer.”

Neither team found the back of the goal until late in the first half. A tick-tack passing play that started when Emily Hansen passed the ball to Morgan Tinari, who crossed the ball to a waiting Camille Kelton – who deflected the ball top shelf – put Sachem up 1-0 with 1:36 remaining in the half.

Just a minute later freshman Kayla Gransrow was fouled in the box and awarded a penalty kick with 37 seconds left. She buried the opportunity to put her team up 2-0.

East came out strong to begin the second half, controlling the pace of play. But it was then that Lindenhurst flipped a switch and put together a strong effort to control the ball and put the Flaming Arrows back on their heels.

“I think the first seven minutes (of the second half) we looked awesome, probably the best soccer we’ve played,” Sachem head coach Ralph Forman said. “But we didn’t capitalize on three or four shots we had that we probably should have scored. After that Lindenhurst picked it up, I have to give them credit.

"They won all the 50/50 balls, they were more aggressive than us and they’re tough, they palyed like the Bulldogs, and we didn’t, we just backed down. I’m disappointed in that but we give Lindenhurst credit because they beat us to the ball.”

Kiersten Gustavson opened the scoring when she chipped a loose ball in front past Sachem goalkeeper Emily Carmel with 30:54 left in the game.

Less than 10 minutes later Courtney McCarthy scored the first of her two goals on a long free kick that Caramel couldn’t catch cleanly, allowing it to trickle into the goal.

Both teams continued to have chances down the stretch. Lindenhurst earned a corner with just over 12 minutes remaining in the game and McCarthy opportunistically fired a loose ball into the goal to put her team up 3-2.

Freshman Brianna Doran finished off the scoring for Lindenhurst in the final minute as East was doing all it could to tie the game.

Not lost in the effort was the play of Lindenhurst goalkeeper Ariana Irizarry, who made 18 saves, many of them in spectacular fashion.

“It’s a tremendous win,” Colgan said. “The experience should get them going for the rest of the season. We needed something like this to get us going and moving.”