Girls Soccer Shuts Out Islip 3-0, Pays Tribute to Pilkington After Game

On a day when the West Islip Varsity girls soccer team remembered their late teammate Alexis Pilkington, the girl's played by their motto in remembrance of her and "gave everything but up" in a hard fought 3-0 win over Islip Friday evening.

With their leading scorer Amanda Martinez a healthy scratch for the game, the Lions struggled to score in the first half. Despite the scoreless tie, head coach Nick Grieco said he was happy with his players and knew if they kept pushing they'd eventually take the lead. Grieco had asked his younger players to step up after being disappointed in their play last game against Lindenhurst, and they did just that.

"I'm very proud of their performance today," Grieco said. "We had a couple players sitting out today, and our sophomores stepped up. We had two goals and an assist from sophomores so they did exactly what we asked.

"They worked hard in practice this week and today they stepped up and that's why they're on this team. We want 22 girls to contribute and we had that today."

West Islip opened the scoring at 37:37 when junior Kelli Walter headed the ball inside to Kelsey Raschke, who was able to knock it past Islip keeper Tara Mackey for the 1-0 lead.

"My teammate got it inside to me and I was able to score," Raschke said. "Second half we just kept working hard and pushing through it. We had the wind to our advantage and we were able to score those goals and win the game."

The Lions worked with the wind at their backs and scored two more goals in the second half. At 24:17 Nicole Perniciaro managed to get the ball after some jostling in Islip's zone and rifle it past Mackey to give the Lions a two-goal lead. Just three minutes later, sophomore forward Brenda DiDonna launched a great shot from just outside the box over the keeper and into the back right corner of the net.

"We had a couple good scoring chances in the first half but we didn't get them on frame," Grieco said. "The wind helped a lot in the second half. We were more consistent, kept coming, and eventually the ball went in the back of the net."

After the game a ceremony was held where Pilkington's mother, Paula, was given flowers and a gift from the team in remembrance of her daughter. In a wonderful show of sportsmanship, Islip had a gift prepared for Paula as well. Girls from both teams sat around Paula Pilkington as she remembered her daughter, gave the kids some words of advice and thanked everyone for their support.

"It was good because today we played like she always did," Raschke said. "We worked hard, gave everything but up, and kept pushing until the end. That's how she played every game."

After a  4-0 start to the season, the Lions will begin league play at home on Monday, Sept. 20 against Centereach at 4 p.m.

"Centereach is a very tough opponent so we have to do the little things," Grieco said. We need to win the 50/50s, give 100 percent effort, have the entire team contribute and we'll be in the game and have a good chance to win. If we don't do those things, then anyone could beat us. That's our strength, doing the little things. The intangibles help us win."