East Field Hockey Defeats Sachem in Penalty Strokes

The Smithtown East varsity field hockey team defeated second-seeded Sachem East in the first ever event on the school's new turf in dramatic fashion, winning 2-1 in penalty strokes (3-1 in strokes).

Megan Rooney, Samantha Nizich and MacKenzie Buckley all scored for Smithtown (9-5-1, 7-5-1) in penalty strokes and Bulls' goaltender Lauren Brennan denied three of four Sachem shooters to clinch the victory.

Brennan stopped 13 of 14 shots she faced in regulation and overtime, including three key saves in overtime, to secure victory for Smithtown East.

She was forced to make a key kick save on Sachem's Katilin Trombetta at 12:49 of the first half, the Arrows' only real scoring chance of the first half.

"Lauren is experienced, she's confident and she loves the challenge," said Smithtown East head coach Ann Naughton. "We have all the faith in the world in her to come up with those kinds of saves. It doesn't surprise me, but thank God we have her back there because she definitely secured it today."

The newly-installed turf seemed to cause some problems for Sachem (12-2-0, 11-2-0) in the first half. The Arrows came out flat, struggling to adjust to the new surface, which apparently played slower than the home turf Sachem was accustomed to.

"This was the first game on their turf," said Sachem East head coach Tina Moon It's slower than our turf, because we've had it, so the pace of the game for us was slower until we got used to it. For them it was something they were dealing with for the first time, and dealing with emotions."

Smithtown opened the scoring on Sami Nizich's redirect of a shot by Shannon Rooney at 22:21 of the first half.

"You know, we've been playing off site," said Naughton. "We're very similar teams, and I think playing the first game on the new turf definitely put us over the edge. Just having that pride of wanting to win the first game on this field."

The half ended with the Bulls up 1-0, controlling the tempo. Sachem's sluggish effort served as an adjustment period on Smithtown's new turf.

"We had to adjust to our feet," said Moon. "I think we were a lot heavier on our feet [in the first half]."

The Arrows found their legs shortly after halftime, controlling most of the play in the second half, however they couldn't break through on Brennan.

"Lauren's a great goalie," said Moon. "I worked with her all summer. I know she's mentally strong and she's tough, I just don't know if we were making good decisions with our shots."

With just under 12 minutes to play, Jillian Donadeo, Sachem's leading scorer, streaked down the right side of the field. After eluding a defender, she fed Jessica Caturano, who was stopped by Brennan but was taken down on the play.

Caturano was awarded a penalty stroke, which she converted, beating Brennan low and to her left to tie the game with 11:40 to play.

From then on, Sachem was dominating the pace of play, seemingly doing everything but finding the go-ahead goal.

Brennan made three saves in overtime on Donadeo to keep Smithtown alive.

"I felt like we dominated the entire overtime, said Moon. "Unfortunately we just didn't put one in and they capitalized."

In penalty strokes, Smithtown's leading scorer, Megan Rooney, fired a shot high past Sachem goalie Samantha Alvino. Sachem's Kristen Bagley was then denied by Brennan.

The Bulls then sent up Danielle Ackerman, who was stopped by Alvino. Ackerman was the only Bulls' shooter not to convert. Sachem's second leading scorer, Katilin Trombetta, also failed to score, as Brennan made another diving save.

Smithtown's third shooter was Nizich, the only player to solve Alvino in regulation. She converted to give the Bulls a commanding 2-0 lead. Sachem's Melissa McKeveney beat Brennan low to get them on the board, staving off defeat for another round.

Mackenzie Buckley's shot then bounced off Alvino's shin pads and spun over the goal line for Smithtown's third goal. Caturano, who previously beat Brennan on a penalty shot, then stepped in needing to score to extend the game. But her shot was stopped by Brennan and the rest of the Bulls rushed to celebrate the victory.

"In that pressure situation you've got to rise to the occasion and unfortunately they came out on top today," said Moon.

Next, Smithtown will play Huntington in their final regular season game at 4 p.m.