After winning a Suffolk County title on Thursday and practicing Friday, the Sachem East field hockey team started Saturday's Long Island championship a bit lackluster.
"I think our legs were tired," said Sachem coach Tina Moon. "I knew just based on the warmups we were a little flat."
Then Massapequa's (12-3) Lena Pollich scored to open the game just 90 seconds in, but Sachem used the necessary wake up call to its advantage. The Arrows fired off four unaswered goals in the first half and won the Class A Long Island championship, 6-1, at Stony Brook Univeristy.
Sachem (19-1) advances to the Class A New York State semifinals next Saturday at Cicero North High School in Syracuse, N.Y.
"I took a timeout real early, took a risk in doing that, and tried to get them settled," Moon said, "and they responded."
Katie Trombetta scored Sachem's first two goals off passes from the corner. Identical passes from Karyn Ryan, who had three assists in the game, at 18:59 and 14:22 put the Arrows up for good.
"I thought to myself, these ones are going in," Trombetta said of her slap shots from the point.
"She wants it bad," Moon. "She took the opportunities and put them right in there."
The Arrows picked up goals from Kayla McKeveny and Kristen Bagley in the first half to lead 4-1 at halftime and added insurance marks from Jessica Caruana and eighth grader Emily Corchia in the second half.
Sachem outshot Massapequa, 25-6, and have only allowed 17 shots in four playoff games so far this season, so far the best in school history to date.
It's still unclear who Sachem will play in the frigid Syracuse region, but they'll bring one of the state's top offenses upstate.
"We’re going to do the best we can," Moon said. "We’re going to play hard and play every moment to do what we need to do to win a state championship."
1 2 F Sachem 4 2 6 Massapequa 1 0 1
S: Goals: K. Trombetta (2), McKeveny, Bagley, Caruana, Corchia / Assists: Ryan (3), K. Trombetta, Doherty, Coope
M: Goals: Pollich
