The Farmingdale PAL Spirit, the division one third and fourth grade entry, played a mid-week inter-divisional crossover game last Thursday against one of the best division two teams, Wantagh-Seaford. The Spirit showed what an outstanding team they are with an 11-5 victory running their undefeated record to 6-0.

Katie Wood led the Farmingdale scorers with three goals and an assist. Candace Rossi continued her team scoring lead by putting the ball into the Wantagh Seaford net three times. Jackie Gunn, Lauren Principato, Tara Coyle, Shannon Haas, and Carolyn Psillos each scored one goal.

The entire team again played extremely well. Shea Macagnone, Katie Sutherland, Brittany Tuzzolo, Lauren Broten, Lauren Principato, and Lindsay Hoglund all did great jobs playing at their attack and defensive positions. Midfielders Allison Laudage, Melissa Maier, Joan Buczkowski, and Alyssa Dorsey contributed to the victory big time by helping to control the ball in the middle of the field with ground ball pick-ups, strong defensive play, and superb transition play. Centers Rossi and Maier controlled a vast majority of the center draws, which also helped maintain ball control for Farmingdale.

The goaltending duties were again split by Julianne Cona and Emily Fugarazzo who both made numerous big time saves leading their team to victory.

On Sunday, the Spirit traveled up to Locust Valley and took on the Falcons. Farmingdale for the first time this year trailed the entire first half. At the end of the first quarter the Spirit were down one goal, 3-2. By half-time the Falcons of Locust Valley were up 6-3 and were threatening to hand the Spirit their first loss of the season.

The Farmingdale Spirit however lived up to their name in the second half by refusing to quit and charged back into the game. They scored three goals in the third quarter, on goals by Allison Laudage, Melissa Maier, and Candace Rossi, while holding Locust Valley scoreless to tie the game at six going into the fourth quarter. Allison Laudage was knocked down when she went hard to goal spraining her ankle, but still valiantly scored the goal to open the second half. The fourth quarter was extremely exciting with Farmingdale scoring the first goal, Rossi's fourth, a little over a minute into it, but Locust Valley answered with another tying goal. Both teams then traded goals again and with four and one-half minutes remaining the score was tied at 8. Farmingdale finally put two scores back to back on goals by Rossi and Shannon Haas to take the lead for the Spirit. Lauren Principato had a real nice assist on Rossi's goal. Haas' goal became the game winner when Locust Valley scored their final goal with just 27 seconds remaining. Rossi then won the final draw to seal the Farmingdale victory at 10-8 and preserve their undefeated status at 7 wins and no loses.

Candace Rossi and Julianne Cona were the stars of the game for the Spirit. Rossi had an MVP type day from her center position. She scored a season and career high six goals, with one recorded assist, while totally dominating the center draws. Julianne Cona defended the goal for the Spirit in the first half. While her team played one of the worst and flattest halves of the season, Cona played her best. She made nine saves in the first half with many of them being one on one shots on her. Coach Joe Fanning told the team at half-time that without Cona playing great in goal the half-time lead of Locust Valley would have been impossible to overcome. "Julianne gave her team the chance to come back by keeping them in the game during the first half," said Fanning.

The other remaining and important Farmingdale goal was Katie Wood's, which opened the Farmingdale scoring. Emily Fugarazzo made three extremely important saves in the second half to preserve the Farmingdale win along with the defense which had really tightened up in the second half. The midfield play in the second half by Brittany Tuzzolo, Tara Coyle, and Carolyn Psllios was extremely strong. The attack and defensive trios of Katie Sutherland, Chelsea Bianco, Lauren Broten, Julianne Cona, Shea Macagnone, and Lauren Principato did a great job of coming up with the loose balls on both ends especially the defensive end, which kept the ball in Farmingdale sticks most of the second half. The Spirit won the battle for ground balls in the second half, which allowed them to mount their impressive come-back. No ground ball pick-up was more important than the one made by Buczkowski. She used her incredible speed to get to a ground ball to the right of the Farmingdale goal with less than four minutes remaining in the game. She scooped it up on the run, transitioned it downfield, and made a successful pass in the offensive end. The ball made it into the stick of Rossi on the next pass and she converted it into a goal to put Farmingdale into the lead for good.

The Junior division team coached by Tim Jones beat a stubborn West Islip "D" team 14-7, which pushed their record to 5-0. The team led from the beginning and eventually built a comfortable five goal lead. Kristin Jones led all Farmingdale scorers with four goals. Jenna Block, Brittany White, and Deena Khalifa each had big performances by scoring two goals apiece. Kristen DiLiello, Katherine Orobona, Jillian Cerar, and Stephanie Butler each had one goal to round out the scoring.

KeriAnn McCarthy and Melissa Crow had two assists each. Amanda Dorsey had a key assist. Strong goaltending by Kristen DiLiello in the first half saw only two West Islip goals make it to the back of the Farmingdale net. Brenna Dugan played the goal in the second half and made numerous big time saves. Finally excellent performances were put in by Kiera Murphy, Mary Orobona, and Katie Maloney.