Jessica Pandolf Scores Career Point 200, Sachem North Beats East Islip 12-11 in Girls Lacrosse

Sachem High School North girls lacrosse coaches Kevin Krause and Ed Manly were giddy for Friday evening's game against Division I rival East Islip because their star player Jessica Pandolf was four points from a major career milestone.

It helped that the Flaming Arrows (7-1 Division, 7-3 Overall) had won six of their last seven contests, so the positive vibes were swirling around Fred Fusaro Alumni Stadium in Lake Ronkonkoma.

It didn't take long before the senior reached career point No. 200 during a neck-and-neck 12-11 win for Sachem on senior night.

"She really stepped up again like always," said Krause of Pandolf, who now has 146 career goals and is one of the school's top offensive players of all-time. "She's been doing that for us all season."

East Islip lead until the 6:52 mark of the first half when Megan McNulty scored to give Sachem a 6-5 advantage.

Both teams continued to exchange goals consistently in the second half and North went on a slight scoring run at 15:52 when Kelly Kuerner scored to give Sachem a 10-9 lead.

That was followed by two Pandolf goals at 13:14 and 11:26. East Islip made things interesting when Karalyn Teleman and Jessica Calamasso scored in the final seven minutes to make it 12-11. Sachem held tough and practiced solid ball control skills in the waning minutes of the game.

"We had a little bit of a let down, a little bit of a slow start, but we were able to keep fighting throughout the game and that really did it," Krause said. "It's about that fight. We really have a will to win on this team."

Krause gave praise to Allison Riss, who scored one goal in Friday's game and has registered at least one point in eight of 10 games this year.

"She's a kid who just keeps coming up with little plays here and there that end up being really bigger than what she gets credit for," he said.

The team is made up multiple girls like that and it's helping in these close showdowns.

Notes:

-Goal scorers for Sachem: Nicole Dale (1g), Allison Riss (1g), Kelly Kuerner (3g), Jenna Pierro (2g), Megan McNulty (1g) and Jessica Pandolf (4g, 2a).

-North, who sits in third place in Division I, has scored 10 or more goals in 12 of its games this year.

-Erin McNulty made 11 saves in net for the Arrows.

-Next up: North travels to West Babylon Saturday at 3 p.m.