Northport beats Massapequa for third straight LI field hockey championship

By the end of the night Wednesday, everyone at Berner Middle School in Massapequa knew the Northport field hockey ‘corner song’ — and most were singing it.

‘It’s corner time. It’s corner, corner time,’ it went . . . and went . . . and went.

Northport, owner of countless corner opportunities, got a chance to sing their hearts out on their way to a 2-0 win over Massapequa in the Class A Long Island field hockey championship game. They next play in the Class A regional against Kingston at noon Sunday at Rondout Valley High School in upstate Accord.

It’s Northport’s third consecutive Long Island championship.

Although the corner song was sung many times, Northport connected on only one — off the stick of Olivia McKenna with 9:16 left in the first quarter. But it’s all it needed.

“I received it and just took one hit from the top,” McKenna said. “I think it hit off a defender’s stick and went in.”

McKenna said the corner song, originated by defenseman Maeve Carroll, is multiple seasons old and serves as a way to get “pumped up” for plays that are always super important in any big field hockey game.

“It’s a great motivator and brings up the team spirit,” McKenna said. “We know that we have to put it in the back of the net on corners.”

Northport added an insurance tally when Emma McLam knocked in a slow rolling ball from the front of the net into the back left side of it with 1:43 left in the second quarter.

“Everyone had a stick on it,” McLam said. “It transitioned so nice. Even though it was a slow roller, it was nice to see it go in . . . It was just intensity. We all knew that if we see that ball, we have to put it in. Having that mentality was all we needed. That’s how we put goals in, be aggressive, and make sure that ball is ours, even if it’s 50-50.”

There weren’t a lot of 50-50 balls throughout the night. Especially in the first half, the ball rarely left a Northport stick. If ball control was the name of the game, Northport practically invented it Wednesday night.

But when a defensive play was needed, Northport made it. Midway through the second quarter, Emily Maloney cut across the field and stopped a potential Massapequa scoring chance with a great cutoff play.

“We’ve been practicing cutting across and just making sure we’re shifting around the field on defense,” Maloney said. “When I saw that my sweeper, Caitlin O’Malley, stepped to the ball, and there was no one around for me to mark, I knew that I had to step in just in case they got past.”