Winter's goal helps Carle Place advance to Class B final
Carle Place's Melissa Duarte chases down the ball during a Nassau Class B semifinal. (Nov. 4, 2010) Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy
Jessica Winter has been with the Carle Place girls soccer program since it finally made the leap to varsity four years ago. She was a part of the lean years, part of all the losses to Class B powerhouse Cold Spring Harbor and, in 2010, part of the grown-up Carle Place.
Last night, with rain streaming down onto the turf field at Denton Avenue, Winter sent a shot into the Oyster Bay net, the only offense that would be needed in a 2-0 victory for No. 2 Carle Place in the Nassau Class B semifinals. No. 3 Oyster Bay ends its season 3-8-2.
Winter's shot just 1:25 into the second half, off a corner kick from Mellissa Duarte, was her first of the season.
"As the play was going on, all I was thinking is, 'I gotta be there, I gotta be there,' " Winter said. "The shot just fell."
Carle Place (7-4-2) advances to the Class B finals for the first time in program history. The Frogs will face No. 1 Cold Spring Harbor, which beat No. 4 Wheatley, 2-1, earlier in the day.
The final is at Denton Avenue Wednesday at 8 p.m.
The first half was a back-and-forth affair, with each team getting scoring opportunities and coming up empty. Making matters worse, rain fell throughout, making the ball play quicker and even the turf field slippery.
But the Carle Place team that emerged from halftime was a different one altogether, with Winter making her mark almost immediately.
Duarte scored with 19:30 remaining in the half off an assist from Emily Mullin to give Carle Place a two-goal cushion.
"Oh my God, best feeling in the world. But at the same time it scares you," Duarte said. "You want to focus as much as possible so they don't get a single goal in."
Said Winter: "We just kept saying that the score's still 0-0, and we've got to keep the defense up."
Nicole Veigas was a wall in net, making six saves to keep Oyster Bay scoreless. Sarah Lewis also had six saves for Oyster Bay.
Carle Place is more than familiar with old foe Cold Spring Harbor, having gone winless against the team its first three years of existence. But this season the tide turned and Carle Place tied, and then beat Cold Spring in their two regular-season meetings. Despite the recent history, the team is far from underestimating its opponent.
"You can't go into a Cold Spring Harbor game thinking you've got it in the bag," Carle Place coach Erik Tonner said. "This conference is evenly matched in our eyes, it could go either way in every game. And Cold Spring's always a tough game. They play good soccer and it's going to be a battle for us."
