Sports

Soccer: Monarchs are shut out in Mattituck

GARRET MEADE PHOTO | Ayla Ayoub, who scored her first career hat trick for Mattituck, races to the ball with Bishop McGann-Mercy's Ali Hulse.
GARRET MEADE PHOTO | Ayla Ayoub, who scored her first career hat trick for Mattituck, races to the ball with Bishop McGann-Mercy’s Ali Hulse.

TUCKERS 5, MONARCHS 0

The seniors on the Mattituck girls soccer team gave a strong postgame demonstration of what playing for the Tuckers has meant to them. Following the team’s final home regular-season game on Monday, they laid down on the grass, face down, and literally hugged their home field at Mattituck High School.

Why not? That field has been good to them over the years. This year the Tuckers are 5-2-1 on their home turf, including Monday’s 5-0 Senior Day blanking of Bishop McGann-Mercy.

Ayla Ayoub, a freshman forward brought up to the varsity team midway through the season, struck for her first varsity hat trick. She put 5 of the 8 shots she took on goal. Fellow forward Trish Brisotti, a junior, produced 2 goals and 1 assist. Nicole Zurawski had 2 assists.

Val Hommel made 3 second-half saves for Mattituck’s fifth shutout of the season.

Before the game, flowers were presented to Mattituck’s six seniors: Kyle Freudenberg, Sam Stapon, Kellie Stepnoski, Isabel Torgrove, Rachel Winkler and Hommel. Then the Tuckers went about making it a memorable day for their seniors.

Brisotti was instrumental in giving Mattituck (8-3-2, 8-3-1 Suffolk County League VII) a 2-0 lead by the time the match was 22 minutes 7 seconds old. After scoring on a breakaway 3:19 after the opening kickoff, Brisotti delivered the cutting through ball that sent Ayoub in on goal, all alone, before she expertly tucked the ball into the right corner of the net.

Zurawski set up Ayoub for a 3-0 lead at 27:33. McGann-Mercy’s goalkeeper, Julianna Cintron-Leonardo, got in front of the shot but the ball deflected over head and into the goal.

Cintron-Leonardo, a sophomore, had a busy afternoon, stopping 9 shots, including one blast by Ayoub that smashed her in the face.

The Zurawski-Brisotti combination worked again 1:36 into the second half, with Brisotti pounding the ball into the net.

Ayoub topped off her hat trick by scoring an unassisted goal with 8:50 to go.

Mattituck, which outshot the Monarchs by 19-10, came within inches of another goal. After collecting a through ball from Ayoub, Catherine Hayes struck the right goalpost.

The best scoring chance for McGann-Mercy (5-9, 4-9) came in the 27th minute when a header by Claire Sullivan narrowly missed the left post.

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