West Islip girls soccer comes up short in state Class AA Southeast Regional Final

West Islip was less than three minutes away from finding itself in the same situation as earlier in the week. After more than 100 minutes of play, West Islip was scoreless with Albertus Magnus and the coaches were already thinking about their penalty-kick strategy.

But in soccer, a result can change in a moment. And that’s exactly what happened when Albertus Magnus scored from 25 yards out with 2:30 left in the second overtime period.  Albertus Magnus defeated West Islip, 1-0, in the girls soccer state Class AA Southeast Regional Final at Nyack High School on Saturday afternoon.

“It wasn’t like there were any mistakes, we were playing good defense and they just took a shot and it went in the corner and that was it,” coach Nick Grieco said. “It was a great shot.”

West Islip had four corner kicks in the second half compared to Albertus Magnus with none, but the Lions couldn’t break through the defense for a winning goal.

The Lions won their first county title since 2019 and first Long Island championship since 2009 despite playing without their star defender Erin Palmeri, a St. John’s commit who hurt her knee in the Suffolk Class AA semifinals. West Islip defeated Eastport-South Manor, 1-0, on Nov. 2 in the Suffolk Class AA final. The Lions then defeated Garden City in penalty kicks, 6-5, after a scoreless 110 minutes of soccer on Tuesday.

“I don’t think people gave us a shot to win the counties, we were very resilient and people stepped up and we won that,” Grieco said. “Against Garden City, same scenario and we won that. And here we are, 140 seconds from [penalty kicks] again with a team I believe is ranked No. 1 in the state and depending on where you look, eight or nine in the country and we basically took it to them.”

Grieco is proud of everything the team achieved this year.

“These girls played with so much heart and pride,” he said. “Work ethic is a skill set that I feel is undervalued these days but our team takes big pride in that and they definitely displayed that today.”

West Islip features a junior-heavy lineup and Grieco believes this experience will help those returners next fall.

“Each year you can see they are building and taking it to the next step and they almost made the state championship,” Grieco said. “As juniors, they have a lot to look forward to. Keep doing what they are doing and they are getting the results.”