The top seeded Massapequa Lady Chiefs defeated third seed Port Washington Lady Vikings 8-7 in the Nassau Class A Girls Lacrosse finals at Adelphi University, led by Jacklyn Gatti’s five goals.
Moira Callahan scored twice while Alexa Gentile and Caitlyn O’Connor each had two assists for Massapequa.
Massapequa goalkeeper Sophia Cardello recorded 11 saves.
Rachel Rosen led Port Washington with two goals and two assists.
Rebecca Rosen scored twice while Ali Hoffman added a goal and an assist for Port Washington.
Although they came up short in the finals, Port Washington head coach Kaitlyn Carter said the best word to describe her team this season is resiliency.
“We were down 7-2 at one point and came back to tie it and send it to overtime,” Carter said. “They really fought through adversity and never gave up. It’s very exciting to be the bottom seed in Conference 1 and to make it all the way to the county finals.”
In the first half, Massapequa shut down Port Washington 4-0 but were out shot 8-7.
Gatti paced Massapequa’s attack with two goals while Gentile had a pair of assists.
Gatti gave Massapequa a 1-0 lead with 21:28 left in the first half off a feed from O’Connor.
After stopping three consecutive Port Washington free position shots, Massapequa came back the other way and got a goal from Sophie Macchia off an assist from Gentile at 5:59.
Gentile recorded her second assist off of Callahan’s goal as Massapequa led by three with 1:23 remaining in the first half.
Gatti’s second goal of the game came off a free position shot to close out the scoring in the first half as Massapequa led 4-0.
In the second half, Port Washington outscored Massapequa 7-3 and out shot them 10-5.
Rachel Rosen got Port Washington on the board with a free position shot at 19:08.
Rebecca Rosen cut Massapequa’s lead in half on another free position shot with 16:59 left to play.
Massapequa put up two more goals as they led by four with Callahan’s second of the game and Gatti’s hat trick.
Gatti netted her fourth goal of the game off an assist from O’Connor at 7:52, forcing Carter to call a timeout.
Port Washington rallied for four consecutive goals from Hoffman, Avazis, Rachel Rosen and Rebecca Rosen as they trailed by one with 2:22 left in regulation.
With 1:55 remaining, Port Washington had an opportunity to play with a four minute two player advantage.
Forty seconds later, Hoffman took a two minute penalty for Port Washington, who now had a player advantage.
Port Washington tied the game at seven on a goal by Micaela Gearty, who was set up in front of the crease by Rachel Rosen with 33.7 seconds left to go.
The game tying goal prompted Massapequa to call a timeout.
With three seconds left, Port Washington had a chance to win it as Cardello was positioned behind the net after a foul.
Erin Tierney, who came off the sideline for serving Massapequa’s first penalty, intercepted the pass to force overtime.
Gatti scored her fifth goal of the game off a free position shot 45 seconds into overtime as Massapequa went on to win the Nassau Class A title 8-7.
