Garden City girls soccer claims first Nassau title since 2016 as Meaghan Lynch, Sienna Castellano drive comeback victory

Some teams need to lose before they can win. No one wants to be one of those teams but the lessons from a loss can help change the future.

The Garden City girls soccer team had learned enough.

The Trojans trailed by a goal at halftime in Friday night's Nassau Class AA final at Farmingdale State College. But they were determined not to exit a county final without a title for a third straight year.

Meaghan Lynch scored the tying goal a little over 10 minutes into the second half and less than three minutes later, Sienna Castellano scored the winner as top-seeded Garden City defeated second-seeded South Side, 2-1, for its first county title since 2016. 

“Coming into this game, everyone was thinking about the last two years,” Lynch said. “Last year losing in overtime [to South Side] was so painful and seeing the seniors feel that pain, nobody wants to feel that. We built off that and we fought.”

Garden City (15-1-4) advances to play West Islip in the Long Island Class AA championship in a state subregional at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday at Hofstra.

“We just wanted to play our own game,” Lynch said. “We’ve scored tons of goals throughout the season, we’ve come back before so we just wanted to push it and stay calm and stay focused on the main goal and not panic.”

Lynch scored the tying goal after taking a pass from Chloe Benik and dribbling from left to right on the 18-yard line. She said she wasn’t thinking about shooting but saw an opening and went for it.

The senior placed the ball in the bottom-left corner for the tying goal with 29:44 left in the second half.

“I wasn’t really aiming it, it just happened to go in,” Lynch said. “That was probably the most exciting moment of my whole entire career. I’ve scored goals before but there’s nothing that compares to that.”

“Physiologically, it was a load off,” coach Scott McAuley said. “We knew we’re back in this game.”

Castellano scored the go-ahead goal in large part due to hustle. She corralled a loose ball after a shot from LeeLee Gaffney hit the post and converted the rebound with 26:52 left in the second half.

“I saw I just had to keep getting to the front of the goal and keep running and she had the perfect ball,” Castellano said. “I just knew I had to get there and tap it in.”

Julie Faranda scored off an assist from Brooke Doreste in the first half for South Side (9-6-2).

“Third year in a row and we weren’t able to get it done the past two years, so just to get it done this year is the best feeling,” said junior goalkeeper Marisa Patrissi, who made six saves on Friday and also stood in goal for the last two county championship losses. “From training in the summer, this was our end goal. Getting here and to win and the fact it came against South Side to have redemption from last year was the best.”