Seaford Girls Soccer Ends Regular Season On a Sweet Note

The Clarke girls soccer team came visiting Seaford High School Tuesday night with with a mission. With one game left in the regular season, the Lady had a chance to put a dent in the season of the conference leading Seaford girls soccer team

Seaford stepped out onto their home field with a mission too -- to win its last regular season game on senior night, after a disappointing 2-1 loss to Island Trees the previous day -- and demonstrate that their regular season title was earned.

In a hard fought and dramatic night game under the bright lights and barreling mist, the Lady Vikings (9-3) prevailed 2-0 on its home turf, but not before a few nail biting moments for the Seaford faithful, and tantalizing hopes of snatching victory from them by the Lady Rams (6-2-3).

The game was a seesaw battle the first half, as the two teams played to a standstill for a full forty full minutes. But the second half saw Seaford score less than four minutes into it -- and then put a cap on things late in the half with the second goal.

Lady Viking coach Suzanne Mooney acknowledged that the game was something of a nail biter. "We've been scoring much earlier than that, we weren't used to waiting that long to score," she said afterwards. "But they tied us earlier in the season when we played at their place, and they knew what we had coming. And they were ready for it."

"We played them hard and we had some good opportunities but the beaks didn't go our way," said Clarke head coach Becky Wachsberger, a former standout goalie at Hofstra University.

It was obvious that Clarke had come to play. Sweeper Nicole Wahlig was a potent force in the middle, whether tackling a Seaford player to disrupt a drive or marking the talented Nicole Nulty.

Meanwhile the Lady Rams were recipients of strong outside play from captain Michelle Colvin on the left and Nicole Russell on the right, who were frequently able to move the field of play into Seaford territory to their principal forward of the day, Abby Trotter.

Clarke's best chance of the first half came with about 24 minutes remaining, rebounding from an unsuccessful corner kick and getting a decent shot off from the foot of Russell. And a free kick chance with three minutes remaining from about thirty yards out cleared a wall of white Lady Viking jerseys, only to be cleared by Victoria Wink.

Not that Seaford didn't have its chances in the first half. A series of surging counterattacks against their visitors resulted in three corner kicks and as many clear shots at goal in the first 20 minutes -- and with ten minutes in the first half, a fast break fueled by Katelyn Rose, who pushed the ball forward to eighth grade talent Genevieve Fishman resulted in a nice cross to Stephanie Meyer, who bounced a crisp shot off the crossbar.

Seaford's resilient game paid off early in the second half when Victoria Principae scored the go-ahead goal minutes on a spectacular corner kick from Nulty -- her fifth of the day. The low driving kick never touch the ground  and Principae, who has four goals on the season, simply put her right foot out, and pounded the ball in for the lead with 36:27 showing on the game clock.

For the bulk of the second half the game turned into 'end-to-end' soccer, as Clarke made a furious attempt to climb back into it. The Lady Ram's best chance came with 31 minutes left in the game, on a fast break that found Trotter staring eyeball to eyeball with Seaford goalie Sera Kolat, with only the ball and a few yards of astro-turf between them. Trotter shot right to left, but Kolat dived the same way, and punched the low line drive out of harm's way.

Nulty, who finishes the regular season with 12 goals, put the game out of reach with 3:28 remaining, taking a pass from Stephanie Meyer and netting it for the Lady Vikings.

As far as preparing for the playoffs Coach Mooney saud she wants her team to "just focus on what we do best. Good passes, good crosses, lots of overlaps, and good communication."