Filippone drives N. Babylon girls over Whitman

With each one of Casey Filippone's smacks on her shinguard, the crack in Whitman's Cinderella slipper grew larger.

The North Babylon forward carried the beat for Christine Campanello's customary pregame pump-up rap by smacking her shin guards and then used her legs to carry the host No. 9 Bulldogs to a 2-0 victory over No. 16 Whitman in the Suffolk Class AA girls soccer quarterfinals.

Filippone used her right leg to rifle home North Babylon's second goal, and her left on a corner kick to assist on April Makely's to open the scoring.

"We didn't look at them and say, 'Oh, they're a 16 seed, so they're not good,' " Filippone said of Whitman, which knocked off No. 1 Sachem East, 1-0, on Saturday after winning an outbracket game over No. 17 Patchogue-Medford on Friday. "If they were good enough to beat the No. 1 seed, they were good enough to play with us. We knew they were coming out guns blazing."

North Babylon (14-3-1) stifled that attack by outshooting Whitman 12-4 and tallying six corners to the Wildcats' one.

Filippone lined up for a corner with 7:35 left in the first half and, after a failed clear attempt by a Whitman defender, Makely sneaked the ball inside the far left post to make it 1-0.

With 19:11 to play in the game, Jessica Eifert sent a long, looping pass ahead to Filippone, who trapped it, let a defender fly by and then drilled a shot into the top right corner for a 2-0 lead.

SEE PHOTOSNorth Babylon 2, Whitman 0

"I tried that move a couple times earlier in the game going to my left," said Filippone, who is a righty but is proficient in shooting with both feet. "I tried the same move cutting right and I put a good shot on it."

Whitman (10-6-2) would have fallen behind even further without the strong play of freshman goalie Samantha Myers-Dineen, who made 10 saves, including several worthy of the highlight reel.

Teammate Sarah Murphy said this season was stamped as a success with the win over Sachem East.

"Beating the No. 1 seed, I'll remember that forever," the senior said. "We knew it gets harder as you move on. Their whole team just outworked us."

The Bulldog faithful came out in droves for a home game it didn't expect to have when the postseason began. North Babylon came through by extending its unbeaten streak to 13 games. In that time, the Bulldogs have outscored their opponents 46-5.

They'll play in the county semifinals for the second straight year on Saturday when they travel to No. 5 West Islip at 2:30 p.m. Said Filippone: "I'll be ready to hold the beat."

Campanello will be prepared with another rhyme.