Colleen Thieke's overtime goal lifts Sacred Heart girls lacrosse over Wantagh

Colleen Thieke has stood with a lacrosse stick in hand facing a net at Wantagh High School imagining the chance to score a winning goal for as long as she can remember. Thieke lives a short walk from the local high school but as she grew older, the jersey she pictured herself wearing when in that opportunity shifted.

Thieke, from Wantagh, decided to attend Sacred Heart Academy for high school. She returned to her hometown field on Saturday, this time in opposing colors.

“I really wanted to win because I’m from Wantagh,” Thieke said. “I live right down the block, I know all these girls so I knew I needed to win. I definitely played with a different intensity today.”

And Thieke found herself in that moment she envisioned on Saturday. The junior attack received a pass at the top of the offensive zone, dodged past a defender and fired a shot before two closing defenders reached her for the winning goal to give Sacred Heart an 8-7 overtime victory over host Wantagh on Saturday morning. Thieke scored with 50.2 seconds left in the first overtime period as Sacred Heart controlled possession after Charlotte Browne secured the draw control to start the three-minute overtime period.

“[The defender] was pressuring out hard and I kept getting in and getting fouled, so I was like eventually, one of these they’re not going to foul and I know it’s going to go in,” Thieke said. “It means everything and it’s just so sick. I’ll definitely remember this.”

Thieke finished with four goals and an assist.

“She has a knack for being our OT Queen as I call her,” coach Danielle Etrasco said. “She always has a knack for getting the ball in overtime no matter what field she’s on if it’s home or not, but our team definitely rallied around that a little bit today.”

Kaylee Fravert added two goals for Sacred Heart, both coming in the first half to help Sacred Heart take a 4-2 halftime lead over one of the stronger public school programs on Long Island.

“These definitely help elevate our game 100%,” Fravert said. “It helps playing these tough public schools to get our name out there. That’s been one of our big goals this year, getting our team known and getting our team name out there and games like this with high intensity make us better and help us achieve our goals of eventually winning a championship.”

Juliana Cerasi and Sabrina Asadurian each had two goals and Sienna Diglio added a goal and three assists for Wantagh (4-3). Riley Forthofer scored off an assist from Diglio to give Wantagh a 7-6 with 5:41 left in the fourth quarter before Elizabeth Darcy scored the tying goal for Sacred Heart (5-2) with 4:58 left before Thieke’s winning goal.

“This is the field where I started playing lacrosse,” Thieke said. “It’s a full-circle moment.”