Ward Melville wins 4th straight LI championship
Ward Melville's Abby Beltrani, left, scored the first two goals of the game early in the first half to lead Ward Melville to a 5-1 win over Massapequa in the field hockey Class A Long Island Championship at C.W. Post. (Nov. 14, 2010) Credit: James Escher
The Ward Melville field hockey team had made a recent habit of starting slow and recovering to win late.
Sunday, Abby Beltrani did something about that.
The senior midfielder scored two goals in the first 8:18 of the game, helping Ward Melville secure its fourth straight Long Island Class A championship with a 5-1 win over Massapequa at C.W. Post. The Patriots advance to the state Class A semifinals Friday at 5:30 p.m. at Cicero-North Syracuse High School.
Ward Melville (18-1) had failed to score in the first half of both its Suffolk semifinal and final wins. Stellar defense and late-game heroics earned the Patriots 1-0 victories in both matches.
This time, they focused on scoring early and often. "To come out and score two right away got us off to a good start," Beltrani said. "It gave us some confidence, and we were able to continue the entire game."
"Scoring in the first half set the tempo," Ward Melville midfielder Vanessa Pryor said.
The Patriots extended to a 3-0 lead with 25:24 left when Pryor took a penalty corner and maneuvered her way through the box for the goal. Massapequa's Kelsey O'Brien responded two minutes later, cutting the deficit to two.
That would be all the firepower the Chiefs (12-5) could muster. The early hole, courtesy of Beltrani, proved to be too much to overcome.
"Obviously, our goal was to go out and score first, but that didn't happen," Massapequa coach Barbara Lowell said. "We were able to put one in, which kind of boosted our momentum."
The Patriots' defense held strong, while the offense provided two insurance goals in the final 7:44 to secure the championship.
This is the second straight year and third time in four years that the Chiefs have lost in the Long Island final to Ward Melville. After starting the season 1-3, the Chiefs won 11 of their previous 12 games heading into yesterday.
"We definitely thought this year was going to be our year," Lowell said. "We were pumped and ready to go, but it just doesn't happen that way. You can't dwell on the negatives. You have to remember that there is always a next year."
But this year, Ward Melville returns to a familiar state championship setting. After winning in 2008, it was eliminated in last year's semifinal.
When asked about Ward Melville's expectations for states, Beltrani paused for a moment, then said: "Well . . . we want to win it all."
