Alyssa Accordino on making history as MacArthur's first female kicker: I'm speechless
Alyssa Accordino converts the extra point after MacArthur's only touchdown on Saturday. Credit: James Escher
It still hasn’t all sunk in for MacArthur’s Alyssa Accordino.
The Generals placekicker helped her team reach Saturday's Nassau Conference II championship game and contributed an extra point in a 14-7 loss to Garden City.
It was a tense atomosphere playing on the road in a championship game with a big crowd, but Accordino nailed her only opportunity to help her team.
Accordino continued to add to an already history-making season as the first female kicker for the Generals.
"Honestly, to leave a mark, especially the mark I have left, I’m speechless," Accordino said. "I can’t believe that’s me, seeing my name, that’s crazy."
Accordino’s attempt came in a pressure-packed moment. Trailing 7-0 in the third quarter, the Generals scored a touchdown to draw within one. Accordino was called on to tie the score, and she did her part by adding the extra point.
"I was nervous kicking to tie it up, 7-7, but I knew I could do it," Accordino said. "I heard the crowd going, but I blocked it all out and finished it off."
Accordino missed her first two extra-point attempts this season, but then made the next 27 in a row. She even set a MacArthur record for most points by a kicker in a game on April 10 against Valley Stream Central with 10, seven extra points and a 32-yard field goal.
"It’s a big role, the pressure is on you," Accordino said. "A lot of times a game can come down that one point, then it’s a big deal."
Accordino is also defensive midfielder on the girls soccer team. Earlier this week, the Generals fell in the Nassau Class A championship to South Side, 2-0.
"This season was so unexpected as it is," Accordino said. "To make it to this point, to be here, there’s nothing more we could ask for."
Accordino is headed to King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where she also hopes to kick on the football team.
"On to the next chapter," Accordino said. "If there is a little girl out there thinking about kicking, my word is to go for it. I’m just the first step and not the last."
