West Islip girls soccer defeats Garden City in penalty kicks to capture LI Class AA championship

You could call it a mistake. You could call it an oversight. But maybe you should just call it fate.

Regardless of how you interpret what occurred in the final minutes of the girls soccer Long Island Class AA championship, one thing can’t be debated. Samantha McCormack was ready.

West Islip defeated Garden City, 6-5, in penalty kicks after 110 minutes of scoreless play in a girls soccer Southeast Regional semifinal at Hofstra on Tuesday night. McCormack was the seventh player to take a penalty kick for West Islip, but that wasn’t the original plan.

Coach Nick Grieco wrote another player’s name with McCormack’s number as the seventh player with McCormack’s name with the wrong number as the eighth player when he submitted his penalty-kick order to the referees. After a brief conversation at midfield, McCormack was instructed to take the next penalty kick.

“I guess the official ruling is you go by the numbers so I gave Sam a little tap on the shoulder and said, ‘Go win us the championship,’” Grieco said. “And she went out there and she did it.”

McCormack didn’t play during the 110 minutes of action but Grieco had the entire team working on penalty kicks over recent weeks. He liked what he saw from the sophomore in practice and told her she may be part of a potential penalty kick lineup.

“I was prepared, I was ready,” McCormack said. “I made sure I wasn’t too nervous to freak myself out.”

McCormack said the little confusion before she went out to kick was a welcomed distraction. After Garden City missed its seventh penalty kick, McCormack had the chance to decide the winner.

“I was a little bit confused over the number stuff, but I told myself I have to make sure I score and I don’t miss,” McCormack said. “I feel like that actually helped me to not worry so much about the game on the line. I was more worried about what was going on.”

Julianne Arcoleo, Meghan Farrell, Leah Tomeo, Jenna Obloj and Ava Obloj also had penalty-kick goals for the Lions, which won their first Long Island title since 2009.

West Islip (18-1-1) advances to play Albertus Magnus at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Nyack High School in the Southeast Regional Final.

Kathryn Monaco, Chloe Benik, Briana Ciccone, Madeleine Patrickakos and Sophie Rhein scored in penalty kicks for Garden City, which finished 15-2-4 after winning its first county title since 2016.

West Islip is seeking its first state title since 1989.

“Maybe the stars are aligned for us this year,” Grieco said. “But we’re just going to take it day by day.”

A previous version of this story contained a misspelling of a player's last name.