St. Anthony's girls soccer defeats Kellenberg to capture NSCHSGAA crown
St. Anthony’s wins the NSCHSAA league girls soccer finals at Adelphi University on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. Credit: Derrick Dingle
St. Anthony’s, Long Island’s own Redeem Team, was at it again Tuesday night, taking another step as it seeks to once again stand as the preeminent Catholic girls soccer program in the state.
The Friars finally began to rinse the bitter taste of 2023 out of its collective mouth by scoring a 3-0 victory over Kellenberg in the NSCHSGAA championship game at Adelphi’s Motamed Field. St. Anthony’s arrived at last season’s diocesan title game unbeaten and unscored upon only have Sacred Heart Academy end its run of six straight championships and two straight state crowns.
“This whole season has been about redemption,” Quinci Gallagher said. “We needed to get back up from that and regain our title.”
“Last year ended with a terrible feeling,” Avrie Nelsen said. “No one wanted to feel that way again.”
Those two got things started less than two minutes into the game when Nelsen put a corner kick perfectly on Gallagher’s head for an icebreaker. Tatiana Pinto took it from there with two second-half goals to close it out. Pinto, a sophomore, was picked Most Valuable Player of the title game.
“That’s me and ‘Q’ on the corner – she’s always there,” Nelsen said. “It didn’t just give us a boost. It showed them we came to play.”
St. Anthony’s (15-1-1) has captured 30 Catholic titles since 1985 – predating the advent of the state tournament – according to Newsday records. The Friars are hosting the state tournament this weekend and will play Archdiocese of New York champion St. Joseph by the Sea in a state Class AA semifinal on Saturday at 1 p.m.
“We got this back, but we feel like there is still unfinished business,” Gallagher said.
Kellenberg finished 14-4-2 with three losses at the hands of the Friars.
Pinto made it 2-0 with 23:26 left in the game off a long kick from goalie Jules Mosca. She got to it before Kellenberg keeper Mia Hennelly – who made several impressive saves amid a storm of Friar shots – and was able to get off a true shot.
“I knew I had to put that one away because I missed one earlier,” Pinto said.
Her second goal came off a direct kick that she lodged into the triangle in the upper right corner of the goal.
“There are 18 seniors on this team and after last season coming to the brink and ending up with tears, they wanted to get to work,” Friars coach Scott Carey said. “From the first minute tonight we never stopped pushing and that’s what the whole season has been like.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
