Ruta to Minnion and back to Minnion nets opener for SWR
Shoreham-Wading River's Sophia Minnion stick0handles through midfield against Rocky Point in a Suffolk Division II game, October 17, 2022. Credit: George A Faella
The play worked exactly how Sophia Minnion and Shoreham-Wading River drew it up.
Minnion passed in a penalty corner to Emmalee Ruta and cut behind a defender just in time to receive a pass back from Ruta and score the opening goal of Shoreham-Wading River’s 2-0 home victory over Rocky Point in Suffolk Division II field hockey Monday.
“The corner is meant to go to Emma and she’s supposed to just get it in for one of us to cherry pick it for a shot,” Minnion said. “It just happened to come right back to me.”
The goal came with 3:21 remaining in the first quarter, and it was all Shoreham-Wading River (10-3, 10-3) would need to secure the win.
“I’m always trying to score but hitting it to the post for someone to tip it in gives us a better chance,” Ruta added. “I saw Sophia had the post open and hit it right to her.”
The Wildcats had another penalty corner in the second quarter. It again went from Minnion to Ruta, but this time Ruta hit it towards the middle for Marisa Cacciola, who tapped the ball to Haylie Abrams for the second goal of the game with 7:40 left in the half.
“No matter if someone tips it or if it goes straight to the circle, we get our corners inside every time and it works out well,” Abrams said.
The Wildcats’ corner attack is well-orchestrated, but it took time to get to this point.
“We had trouble finishing our corners at the beginning of the season, but we’ve been working on them a lot because they’re very important,” Ruta said.
“We’ve been much more consistent with the corners and we’ve been successful with them a lot,” Minnion added.
Rocky Point (9-4, 10-4) had three of its own opportunities on penalty corners, but Shoreham-Wading River’s defense stood tall each time. Anchored by Maggie Anderson, who made five saves, the Wildcats made two consecutive stops in the third quarter to keep Rocky Point off the board.
“Keeping our sticks down and being composed against those corners was key,” head coach Christina Sacchitello said. “Especially on our two posts, if your stick is up in the air, it’s going to go right underneath.”
A 2-1 loss to Bayport-Blue Point on Oct. 12 snapped an eight-game win streak for the Wildcats, but they’ve won their last two games with one game remaining before the postseason.
Matt Lindsay is a high school sports reporter who joined Newsday in 2022 after graduating from Stony Brook University.
