East Meadow Field Hockey Wins Battle of Youth over Seaford

The and East Meadow field hockey teams graduated a combined 29 players from last year and the two squads with many new faces and promise for 2011 squared off against each other Thursday afternoon.

Despite a valiant effort from Seaford goalie Diana Rice (eight saves), the Jets got the better of the battle of youthful squads in Thursday’s early season League III match-up, 2-1.

Goals by Erica Semonella and Claire Travis put East Meadow up a 2-0 before Marissa Scialti gave Seaford hope with a second half tally.  The Lady Vikings however were not able to register the equalizer by East Meadow goalie Kelly Ann Callahan, who finished with four saves on the afternoon.

“[The team] worked really well,” said East Meadow field hockey head coach Courtney Castle, whose program graduated 17 seniors from last year. “In practice we worked on passing and they executed what they learned.”

Even though her team did not leave East Meadow in the win column, Seaford field hockey head coach Patricia Foley was still satisfied with the way her youthful squad performed. “We did well considering how young the team is,” said Foley, who lost 17 seniors from last year’s playoff team to graduation. “We have a lot of things to build on in upcoming practices. If we fine-tune certain things we can win games like this. Overall they’re feisty for a young team and I like it.”

Seaford (1-1) opened the 2011 season with a 4-1 win at Sewanhaka this past Tuesday with Kara Murphy registering two goals. East Meadow(1-1) began the 2011 campaign with a 4-1 setback at Locust Valley on Tuesday.

Seaford is next in action at home against Locust Valley Saturday morning starting at 10 a.m. East Meadow returns to the field this Tuesday at Sewanhaka starting at 4:30 p.m.