Farmingdale High School's Girls Lacrosse Team brought pride to their school and community Tuesday when they defeated New Hyde Park 12-11, capturing the Nassau Large Schools girls lacrosse championship.

Leading the scoring for the Lady Dalers were Christine McPike with four and Megan Zimmer with four. Leigh-Ann Zimmer scored three times, and Jessica Psillos, once. The entire team, which is coached by Tracy Wiener, pulled through for the victory, according to Tom Howard, director of athletics for the Farmingdale School District. "It definitely was a team effort," he said. "It was a very physical game and a challenging game for the girls."

The end of the game was filled with drama. Farmingdale was winning 12-10 with three minutes to go, and then made an errant pass, allowing the tough New Hyde Park team to get the ball and score. Then, with only 1:58 left, the score was 12-11. However, Farmingdale won the ensuing draw and kept the ball away from its opponent for the rest of the game. "All the girls worked their passes perfectly to ensure the victory," Howard said, describing the action.

A combination of talent, hard work and good strategy seemed to have led to the victory. "We have a real good nucleus of girls," said Howard, adding that Coach Wiener challenged the girls to step up their efforts toward the end of the game. "I think Tracy challenged them in the second half," he said. "We also had the wind in the second half, which was a big advantage." For this reason, he noted, the team's decision at the start of the game not to take the wind at their backs in the first half, but rather in the second half - when they would likely be more tired - was a good one.

Offense was not the only strength of the team during the championship contest, according to Howard. "Defense played an excellent game, as a team, and individually," he said, adding, "Keep-away was a strength, and Tracy had practiced that with the girls all year." Playing well on defense, according to Howard, were: Tricia Maloney, Cassie Rathgaber, Megan Zimmer, and Samantha Sparta, who had 12 saves in goal.

In the five years that Farmingdale High School has had girls varsity lacrosse, the school has won two Nassau County Class A Large Schools girls lacrosse championships. The last time was in 1995. In addition, the team has gone to the playoffs in each of its five years.

"We've had a very good lacrosse program here - both boys and girls - so when the girls took over, they expected nothing less," said Howard. A testament to this is the record of Farmingdale High School's boys lacrosse team. The boys are 16-1, and they will play Baldwin in the Nassau Large Schools Championship at Hofstra at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.

The girls team's next aspiration is the Long Island Championship. They will compete for it Saturday, June 6 at Longwood High School in Middle Island. Directions to the school, which is near exit 66 off the Long Island Expressway, just north of Yaphank, may be obtained by calling the district athletic office at 752--6638. Depending on the outcome of the rest of this week's play, Farmingdale will play either Bayshore or Northport.