Oyster Bay rallies for first playoff win

The Oyster Bay girls lacrosse team found itself in an unfamiliar position on Wednesday: Facing a deficit late in a game, their backs to the wall, and feeling pressure. Add to it a scenario they were totally unaccustomed to: It was the playoffs.

So when the Lady Baymen trailed Clarke by four in the second half, in the program’s first ever postseason game, it was only natural to wonder if the nerves would take effect, if this group could be overwhelmed by the magnitude.

“I asked them afterward if they were ever worried,” Oyster Bay coach Charlie Rizzutto said. “They said, ‘It got a little shaky, but we never doubted it.’"

The Lady Baymen surged in the final minutes and Nicole Hauser scored the winner as they edged Clarke, 13-12, in a Nassau Class C quarterfinal – earning the second-year program’s first playoff victory.

“It means a lot,” Rizzutto said. “This group of kids will always be the first and nobody can take that away from them.”

Hauser drove off the right wing as teammates cut to create space for the isolation. The attack put a move on her defender and maneuvered inside, then quickly turned the corner and fired the go-ahead goal with two minutes left for No. 2 Oyster Bay (10-5).

“Nicole put it on herself to make a play and she did it,” Rizzutto said of the junior. “She has been part of some of the biggest goals we've scored… Last year, we beat Oceanside [in non-league] and she got the draw in overtime and scored the winning goal.”

She also had scored the final two goals in regulation to force overtime. So it would seem the big stage doesn’t faze her. But before Hauser’s heroics against Clarke, there first needed to be a valiant rally from down 9-5.

Shelby Cook tied it at 9 with 13:48 left, but Jen Wahlig (four goals) answered and the seventh-seeded Rams eventually went up 12-10. Oyster Bay again charged back and Michelle Yu tied it with 5:08 remaining.

Michelle Yu scored four goals and her sister Vanessa had three to lead Oyster Bay. Hauser and Layne each scored twice and Hannah Kaiser added a goal and an assist. Emily Vomvas made eight saves, including two stops late to keep it tied.

Oyster Bay is 22-7 in its first two years and went 12-2 in the inaugural season, so this team hadn’t often been outplayed or faced many late deficits. Clarke provided the proverbial gut check.

“They didn't want the season to end and did everything possible to make sure it didn't,” Rizzutto said. “We’re down by 1 and I yelled to Emma Devereaux, Vanessa Yu and Rebecca Layne before a draw, ‘We’re even.’ When they looked back at me, I saw heart and focus. That made me confident.”

Clarke had the ball “probably 70 percent of the first half,” Rizzutto said. The Rams controlled possession and won the majority of 50/50 balls early on, which helped them build the lead.

“Something clicked in them and they started playing more as a team in the second half,” Rizzutto said. “There's a difference between just doing your job and making a play and playing for each other. We used each other better on defense; created space for each other on offense. That was the difference in the final 12 minutes.”

The Lady Baymen will face Seaford in the semifinals on Thursday, 6 p.m. at Adelphi. A bonus of advancing a round, Rizzutto said, is that the injured players who weren't able to attend the quarterfinal will be with the team next week. Among them are Cailin Cook and Danielle Maggi, a senior defender who had ACL surgery this week.

Maggi, who is headed to Albright, was the first team member to commit to play college lacrosse.

“We're trying to build a program that does big things consistently in the future, and to get there, you need these small steps,” Rizzutto said. “This was a step in building that foundation.”