Connetquot girls soccer takes a win

On Monday, Sept. 13, the girls varsity soccer team, the Connetquot Thunderbirds, hosted the Newfield Wolverines in a matinee on 7th Street in Bohemia. Connetquot came into the contest seeking their first victory of the fall with a record of 0-2-1.

Connetquot’s season opener was a 1-1 tie at West Islip followed by two consecutive losses, 5-2 to East Islip and 6-2 to Sachem East. Newfield has yet to enter a loss in the column, standing at 2-0-1.

Their opener was a scoreless deadlock, 0-0, at West Babylon, then back-to-back shutouts; 3-0 as visitors to Bay Shore; then a top-notch home opener, 6-0 hosting Copiague.

In Bohemia, it was a sea of red as both clubs’ primary color is red and white as the secondary. In the net for the visitors was junior Madison Keenan and for the home team senior Gabby Pinero.

It was all defense for the first half, 0-0 after 40 minutes of play. In the second half, with 19:55 remaining in the game, senior Laney Schmitz rocketed a kick to the left corner of the Newfield net and into the mesh to break the scoreless tie, assisted by freshman Kaylin Mallon. Pinero made a couple of clutch grabs with the remainder of the game in single-digit minutes. With 9:20 to go, Pinero scooped up the ball and booted it away on a Newfield scoring drive.

Later, with 4:25 remaining, Pinero made a clutch catch and took the ball out of their defending territory. When the buzzer sounded after 80 minutes of soccer, Connetquot defeated Newfield 1-0.

Since last Monday afternoon the Wolverines have been playing host. At Newfield on Sept. 17, they tied 1-1 against Centereach, Smithtown West on Sept. 21, and will welcome Lindenhurst tonight at 5 p.m. The Thunderbirds were home on Saturday morning versus Ward Melville and were defeated 2-0, in an away game at North Babylon, and tonight will face Huntington at their venue on 7th Street in Bohemia at 5 p.m