Girls Soccer Falls to Ward Melville 3-0 in County Semis

The West Islip girls soccer team (No. 4) missed an opportunity to advance to the Suffolk Class AA County Finals on Saturday afternoon, losing to top-seeded Ward Melville 3-0 at Ward Melville High School.  It was West Islip's third consecutive appearance in the county semifinals. 

Without their star player, Amanda Martinez, who was sidelined with an injury, the Lions were unable to penetrate a stifling Melville defense. 

Just four minutes into the first half, Melville's Tara O'Hern scored the game's first goal, which proved to be the game-winner.  The Lions' defense was able to prevent WM from scoring anymore before halftime, but any chance of a comeback fell short in the second half.

Within three minutes of the second, Melville's Katie O'Connor scored two goals in a row (11:44, 9:06).  The first was a bullet from about 20 yards out and into the upper left-hand corner.  The second happened in a split second, and was put in off a rebound from WI Goalie Kelsey Olhbaum, who was ruled to be over the goal line.  Olhbaum did have a season high ten saves; her last record of eight saves was on October 11th against Northport.

"We had a great season this year, unfortunately we didn't finesse our chances this game," said Head Coach for the Lions, Nick Grecco.  "I'm still proud of my team because of their hard work."

"West Islip is deadly in the penalty box, so we had to press up as much as we could today and get possession of the ball fast," said Ward Melville coach John Diehl.  "That's the key of the game, to win possession of the ball."

This will be the first time Ward Melville (15-1-1) has advanced to the county championships in the 31 years the school has played at the varsity level.  The game will be against Northport (No. 2) on Wednesday, Nov. 9th at 6:30 p.m. at the Dowling College Sports Complex.

West Islip finished the season with a 15-4 record, going 9-3 in League II play. 

Team

1st Half

2nd Half

Final

Ward Melville

1

2

3

West Islip

0

0

0