Garden City beats North Shore in Class B final
Garden City's Catherine McTiernan, right, looks to get past North Shore's Lauren Janelli in the first half of the Nassau Class A championship game at Adelphi. McTiernan scored the game's first goal and added another later. (Nov. 7, 2010) Credit: James Escher
The scoreboard at Adelphi University delivered a message similar to that of so many others before it in the field hockey county finals: Garden City's reign continues.
The top-seeded Trojans defeated North Shore, 7-1, in the Nassau Class B final Sunday to claim their 16th county title in a row.
Garden City (16-0-1) has won 13 Long Island championships since 1991 and three of the last five state titles.
Winning never gets old, they say, but it's especially so for the new girls: the ones who screamed while clutching the championship plaque like a canteen in the desert. It's special for the players in their first varsity season, Trojans coach Diane Chapman said. The first-time starters, too.
For example, Catherine McTiernan is a junior who was on the team for last season's Long Island title run, but she sat on the bench behind a senior-laden group of stars. Sunday, she stitched her name into the Trojan fabric with two goals.
"We almost seem like a new team so the excitement level going into this game was so high," McTiernan said.
She put Garden City on the board eight minutes, two seconds into the game. During a scrum in front of the net, Tara Mahon whipped a short pass to McTiernan, who was set up about five feet in front of the goal, and she poked it into the right corner behind goalie Lauren Gerard (12 saves).
Jenna Fuchs made it 2-0 with 10:44 remaining in the half, taking a quick pass from Alex Bruno and rifling it inside the left post. McTiernan struck again - off a feed from Mikaela Rix (three assists) - 2:16 before halftime to make it 3-0.
Third-seeded North Shore (10-6-1) hadn't allowed more than two goals in any game this season, and that happened only twice. But it was one of those games for Garden City's offense.
"We knew we couldn't sit back and think this would be easy," McTiernan said. "We know North Shore is a tough one, but we were awesome."
Caroline Tarzian's goal with 36 seconds left in the half made it 4-0. Alex Bruno (two assists) scored 1:42 into the second half and Tara Mahon got one at 21:14.
Christina DeMeo slipped one past Allison Miller (one save) with 6:32 remaining for North Shore, but Marguerite Rix got another for Garden City on a penalty stroke in the final minute.
"People think we take this for granted," Bruno, a junior, said, "but every year it gets better and better. Different people step in and it's a challenge for everyone to be a part of it themselves . . . It's such a big deal."
