SWR takes Long Island girls soccer title

The Wildcats are Long Island soccer champs – again.

For the second year in a row, the Shoreham-Wading River girls soccer team has punched its ticket into the New York State Class A final four in Cortland next weekend with a 2-0 victory over Wantagh on Sunday at Farmingdale State College.

Wantagh, which won its first ever Nassau County girls soccer crown coming into the Long Island championship, was simply outclassed by a team that’s been there before. There were no nerves in the veins of SWR, at least none that could be seen on the field as the team came out strong and everybody up and down the lineup made an impact.

“It really started with a strong first half which we’ve been missing in the last few games,” SWR head coach Adrian Gilmore said. “Even though we didn’t score early in the first half, we set the tone of the game right away. It was the most complete game we played as a team all year long.”

Whether it was Stamatia Almiroudis pressuring the Wantagh defense into mistakes, Chloe Bergen being a rock in the middle of the field or Olivia Pesso taking control of an uneasy situation, when someone needed to step up and do their job, they did it and did it well.

“We’ve been here before,” Pesso said. “We know what it takes to win this game. We’ve worked so hard to get to this point and this is not the place to let up. We knew we had to come in with our best to win and I’m super excited to keep this journey going into Cortland.”

Before Mia Mangano finally had her breakthrough goal with 19 minutes remaining in the first half  – a shot that she ripped from outside the box, crossing the whole goal and finding the upper corner  – Mangano had a bunch of near-misses. 

Midway through the first half, the ball was passed up ahead to Mangano who instantly sprinted forward, getting past one defender with the goalkeeper starting to charge. A swift-thinking Mangano took a little touch and got behind the goalkeeper only to realize the touch was too strong as it rolled past the endline. Early in the second half, on a shot similar to how she scored, was tipped away by a fully extended Wantagh goalkeeper.

“I was getting frustrated for sure,” Mangano said. “But Ava (Gengler) kept telling me to ‘keep going. It’s going to go in. Keep shooting.’ The encouragement really meant a lot, especially coming from a senior.”

It was only right that Gengler ended up with the assist on the first goal of the game. But 1-0 is rarely enough – especially in a game with this high of stakes. And Wantagh definitely had their chances to score, no more than the free kick from just outside the box after a Wildcat handball with 22 minutes left in the game. The shot was turned away by Morgan Lesiewicz who only needed to make two saves on the day with her defense being so stout ahead of her. 

Pesso was all over the pitch, assisting on offense or making a play on defense, often chasing attackers down from behind and stealing the ball.

“I think this was one of the best games I’ve ever seen Olivia play,” Gilmore said. “She was all over the place. She was calm and secure with the ball and really did everything we asked of her.”

Pesso had the ball at her feet down the left flank near the box and did a cutback move so quick and vicious, she left her opponent on skates. After gathering herself, she rolled the ball over to the middle and absolutely left it on a platter for Shealyn Varbero who stuffed it into the back of the net.

That was the final dagger. Though there were still nine minutes on the clock, Wantagh looked dejected. All the energy was sucked out of them by a team that has been there before  – a team that still thinks about losing in the state final last year. They’ll get their chance at redemption this weekend.

The state semifinal game will be played at Cortland High School on Saturday at 9:30am against Section V Pittsford Mendon High School. Should they win, the finals would be at 10 am Sunday at SUNY Cortland.

“We’re ready to lock in and fix any weaknesses we may have,” Pesso said. “We’re ready for the big stage. Maybe we felt a little lost last year in Cortland but we know what to expect this year. We’re in this together as a family and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”