Near misses by Melissa Weiss and Pooja “Pipi” Mani in the first half did not stop the Liberty from…
Trailing a tough Red Fury soccer team from Glen Cove 2-0 at halftime, the Little Neck Liberty rallied to score three second-half goals in a 3-2 win Sunday.
Near misses by Melissa Weiss and Pooja “Pipi” Mani in the first half did not stop the Liberty from keeping the pressure on.
The Liberty finally broke through on a nice goal from Christine Anerella and tied the score midway through the second half when Chelsea Baldo hit a blast from the left side that sailed over the head of the frustrated Glen Cove goalie.
The Liberty continued to pursue, led by the midfield rotation of Jessica Civello, Stephanie O’Keefe, Amanda Metz, Melissa Prusak, Jackie Shafer and Anndrea Salvatto.
The defense stiffened up, led by sweeper Lindsay Shack, who played an outstanding game. Strong contributions by Charlotte Barrett, Amanda O’Keefe and Jackie Anerella and strong goaltending by Amy Greenberg kept Glen Cove in check.
With eight minutes left, Chelsea Baldo scored her second goal of the game, capping a great comeback from a team that never gave up.
Last week the Liberty posted a 4-0 victory over the Island Trees Wildcats.
Although not credited with a goal, Kendall Baldo played a great game at forward.
The Liberty took a 1-0 lead before halftime on a goal from Shafer. In the second half the offense picked up, led by Mani, who tallied two scores to make it 3-0.
Prusak scored her first goal to make it 4-0 on a great pass from Civello. Greenberg got the shutout victory in goal with great defense in front of her led by Barrett, Amanda O’Keeke, Baldo and Shack.
The Little Neck Demons shut out the Oyster Bay Mustangs, 1-0, Saturday at the Creedmore Farms Field.
Little Neck came out strong and dominated the field of play for the first half but was unable to finish against a strong Oyster Bay defense.
Giancarlo Roselli controlled the Little Neck defense from the sweeper position and kept turning dangerous attacks away. Left fullback Brandon Dittmar covered the most dangerous attacker on Oyster Bay for the whole game.
Grant Pastori kept the right back slot clean and started the attacks out of the back by transferring the ball to midfield where Brandon Sozomenu and Roman Vilca controlled the ball and led the wing attacks.
David Chiariello played his best game of the year, coming off the bench at midfield and fullback positions. Kevin Bonilla, Seth Rothbaum and Alex Esposito in relief led the attack against the Oyster Bay goal.
It wasn’t until the second half that Little Neck broke through, when Liam Maillaro converted the free kick into a goal by quickly setting up and putting a 25-yard rocket past the Mustang keeper.
Liam also contributed stellar goal-keeping during the first half. Seth Rothbaum finished the game in goal and turned back a couple of tough shots. The Demons’ success can be directly traced to strong practice habits where recent focus on using open space led to a solid ball-control effort and maintaining possession for most of the game.
