Long Island boys and girls soccer players share their approaches for penalty kicks

Nicholas Galindo began rubbing his face with his hands as he walked up to the penalty spot. The referee handed him the ball. Then the St. Anthony's forward took five long steps backward before hopping to the left and running forward with a slight hesitation before slotting the ball into the bottom right corner. 

“It’s something I practiced for a while,” Galindo, now a senior, said recently of his penalty kick that propelled St. Anthony's to the CHSAA state boys soccer championship over Regis last November. “When I hesitate, I see which way the goalie is leaning to . . . and I just go the opposite way.”

In soccer, there's nothing more nerve-racking than a penalty kick, whether you're the kicker or the goalkeeper. 

It’s the only play in the sport that is a true one-on-one, with a mere 12 yards being the difference between a day to remember and a day to forget. Long Island’s boys and girls soccer players know the pressure and preparation that comes to a climax in that moment.

Just ask West Islip's Samantha McCormack. She scored the winning penalty kick in the Long Island Class AA championship on Tuesday night . . . after having not played in the game's previous 110 minutes. "I was prepared, I was ready," said McCormack, the seventh player to take a penalty kick for West Islip. "I made sure I wasn't too nervous to freak myself out."

Others have more experience in the pressure-packed moments. Galindo’s stutter step is a trick many strikers employ, including Island Trees senior Gavan Ries. He likes to take a brief pause around two yards before his right foot connects with the ball, which is exactly what he did when he scored the game-winning penalty kick in a 2-1 win over Plainedge in Conference A-II on Oct. 5.

Ries reflected on a penalty kick he took as a freshman on junior varsity years earlier, one that had been saved. He said the pressure got to him, but this time he employed a new approach despite the pressure of breaking a tie in a game with playoff implications.

“I really focus on my breathing to calm myself down,” Ries said. “. . . My teammates were encouraging me, so I think that calmed me down as well.”

Island Trees went on to secure the No. 10 seed and the final spot in the Nassau Class A playoffs, which may not have occurred without Ries’s poise.

Ward Melville’s Sarah Jablonsky is just as familiar with pressure. She scored a penalty kick in the Patriots' second consecutive Class AAA state championship win in November 2023.

Jablonsky said she was surprised when coach John Diehl picked the then-junior to take the kick, but this wasn’t a gut call. Tried-and-true programs like Ward Melville girls soccer are surgical, going through penalty kicks after practices come playoff time and keeping stats on how players fare to best consider who to call upon in clutch moments.

“It was great, it made me feel like all the practice was worth it,” Jablonsky said. “We prepare really well at practice, and our coaches make sure we’re ready.”

Diehl prefers low shots to the corner. But even though Jablonsky opted for a powerful shot to the top right corner, there’s nothing but complete trust between the two because of the time she’s put in.

“Excellence in anything requires a lot of repetition of boring things sometimes,” Diehl said. ". . . That’s what Sarah’s done at practice, and she’s become a very strong penalty-kick taker.”

Preparedness breeds confidence, and confidence breeds success from the penalty spot. That’s already been on display in the first round of this year’s Nassau Class AA girls soccer playoffs as Mepham and Roslyn finished with a penalty shootout on Oct. 22. First-year varsity player Katlyn Kestenbaum stepped up for the Pirates as their seventh kick-taker, tied 3-3 in the shootout with a chance to win.

The junior even told her coaches she was going to score. A minute later, she did.

“I knew I was going to make it, and I felt confident in myself,” Kestenbaum said. “I felt like I accomplished something I had never done before.”

The goalkeeper's approach

Every kicker has a plan, and every goalie has an idea on how to thwart it. St. Dominic junior goalkeeper Lily Onorato approaches penalty kicks not unlike an experienced hiker who sees a bear approach — she gets big and ferocious.

“When they first call a PK, it’s a mind game from there on,” Onorato said. “You have to try and get in their head, because they’re as nervous as you are . . . the more scary you look, the more you jump around, the more they start to overthink themselves.”

The UConn commit helped her team reach the Class A CHSAA state championship in 2023, ultimately falling 3-2 in a penalty shootout despite Onorato saving two penalty kicks. Onorato’s mind games only continue when the referee blows the whistle for the shot to proceed.

“I stare down the girl who’s going to take the kick,” Onorato said. “I want the girl to think, ‘She’s ready for this, she’s ready for me, she’s ready to go.’ They overthink where they’re going to kick it.”

Onorato and St. Anthony’s junior goalkeeper Cole Lawrence both focus on the physical aspects of their opponents' approach, particularly of the direction of the plant foot.

“Wherever your foot [is facing], that’s where the ball is going,” Onorato said.

But both also subscribe to the famous words of the singer Shakira: “Hips don’t lie.”

“I try to look at where their hips are facing, and I try to look at where their plant foot is to see if I can try and guess which side to go,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence didn’t employ many mind games in St. Anthony’s state championship last season, but said he normally would and believes in their effectiveness. It’s worth noting that on Regis’ first and only miss in the shootout, Lawrence kept his arms wide as he bounced from side to side more than he did on any other attempt.

“In other scenarios I try to go up to them or say something or jump up and down or clap,” Lawrence said. “Just to try and get in their head a bit.”

It’s commonly accepted that around 85% of penalty kicks are converted into goals among top professional leagues, and Onorato and Lawrence are aware they won’t save every penalty kick that comes their way. That’s where the mental fortitude of a goalie is tested.

“I do a thing with my gloves, I unwrap them and rewrap them, and I pretend it’s 0-0,” Onorato said. “Positivity spreads quickly, but negativity spreads even quicker.”

Said Lawrence, “I try to have a short memory and just forget about it.” 

Regardless, one side of the ball will always leave with a sense of heartbreak. Onorato knows this all too well, as she had to suit up for her club team the day after the state championship loss. She ended up having “the best game of her life” despite being new to the squad.

“That just made me positive because I had a horrible day because of that PK in states,” Onorato said. “But then I found happiness the next day . . . Life does go on, and there’s other things that will bring you positivity.”