The Farmingdale PAL Spirit traveled to Connecticut on Sunday to play in the Greenwich Youth Lacrosse Tournament at Greenwich High School. The Spirit, a mixed seventh and eighth grade girls lacrosse team, were spectacular in winning four games and tying one in five 20-minute running time grades, which is a typical tournament format. Farmingdale defeated four Connecticut teams, Glastonbury 7-1, Greenwich Úquot;BÚquot; 7-2, Bedford 6-0, and Guilford 9-2.

The Spirit's most impressive game was against Greenwich A, which ended in a 5-5 tie. Both teams, who finished with identical 4-0-1 records, began the third game of the A division round undefeated. The Spirit started very slow and within 10 minutes were down 4-0. The Farmingdale girls then showed what a great competitive team they are by scoring five unanswered goals to take the lead over a shocked Greenwich team and coaching staff. Greenwich showed they too are a high competitive team by coming back to score the tying goal to end what was clearly the highlight game of the tournament. The Greenwich A team players make their very impressive team by trying out for the team from a large number of players. It is almost an All-Star team, but Farmingdale too showed they are a superb team composed of outstanding and athletic lacrosse players from top to bottom.

Jenna Block was the Spirits tournament leading scorer with nine goals and three assists. Shannon Haas had five goals with three assists, Jillian Cerar three goals with four assists, Katie Wood two goals with four assists, Candace Rossi three goals with three assists, Kristen DiLiello three goals with one assist, Melissa Maier three goals, Alyssa Dorsey three goals, Carolyn Psillos one goal with four assists, Tare Gangarossa two goals, and Melissa Crow one assist.

Brittany White and Melissa Crow led the brilliant Spirit defense helping limit their five opponents to only ten goals compared to 34 goals for. Amanda Dorsey also did a great defensive job and furthermore came up with many ground balls. Kiera Murphy played rough both offensively and defensively. Finally Brenna Dugan was outstanding in goal saving about 55 percent of the Spirits opponent's shots on goal enabling her team to tie for the tournament championship.

The Spirit played without their leading scorer to date in the brief regular season, Kristin Jones. Margaret Wheeler, Erin Forstrom, and Patricia Draghi were also unable to make the trip. Coaches George Psillos and Joe Fanning were both very impressed and proud of the superior defensive and offensive effort. The Spirit really moved the ball well with crisp and effective passes setting up many easy and beautiful goals. Many of the Connecticut teams, coaches, and spectators were extremely complimentary of the fine team play by Farmingdale.

The Spirit, who are 2-0 in the regular season, did not play their regular league game on Saturday when their scheduled opponent, Manhasset, had to postpone because their players had to play in a Manhasset junior high school game that we scheduled at the same time. The team has had two other previous games postponed due to weather and field conditions.

The Farmingdale Seventh Grade Girls White Lacrosse team played their most impressive game this season, with a 10 to 3 victory over Long Beach. Due to the fact that Farmingdale entered the game with only 13 players, which allowed them one substitute, the girls knew they would have to play at the top of their game. And play they did outscoring Long Beach five to two in the first half and five to one in the second half. The most impressive part of the game was that nine of the 13 girls scored goals, and/or contributed with assists. Leading the team on offense were Lauren Broton, with two goals, and two assists, and Jackie Gunn, with two goals. Also adding to the goal tally were Liz Edwards, Julia Castaldi, and Stephanie Rulli who were outstanding on both offense and defense, along with Alex Maldonado, Jackie Rulli, and Danielle Dialto. Assisting on offense with an assist was defensive person Brianna Birney who along with Brittany Kohlman, and Lia Costanzo shut down the Long Beach midfield attack. An exceptional game was had by Alyssa Kildare, who was give the chore of covering Long Beach's top goal scorer who she held to only one free position goal. Alyssa also added a goal for Farmingdale to cap off her excellent game.

Last, but not least, was the goal tending team of Julianne Cona, and Samantha Elie, who combined to hold Long Beach to only three goals.

Coach Davis stated after the game that he could not have asked for the girls to have played a better game. He also stated that the girls had informed him that they had dedicated this game to Úquot;the Birthday Girl,Úquot; Allison Laudage, who at the ripe old age of 13 stated she finds playing the game tougher and tougher as the years pass her by. However, even after an entire warmup of complaints about her arthritic shoulder, Allison ignored the pain and had another fine game at her position of Cover Point. Happy Birthday Allison!

Next week the team visits crosstown rival Massapequa, for what should turn out to be another good game.

The 6th grade PAL girls team, coached by Dan Hushion, continued their winning ways this past week with a hard-fought 9-5 victory over Northport. Again Farmingdale started slow but goalie Lauren Maksym played magnificently and kept her team in the game until the offense could get into gear. Janine Hillier led the way on offense scoring four goals and adding one assist. Kayla Mueger added two goals and played an all-around terrific game. Brittany Hushion, Stacy Leckawicz, and Joan Buczkowski each tallied a goal and an assist. Tara Coyle continued her outstanding team leadership by adding four assists to four different scorers. Victoria Finocchiaro, Katie Wong and Kim Valdini each added one assist in the offensive effort.

The defense played spectacular in the second half by holding Northport to only one goal in the final 24 minutes. The defense was led by the outstanding efforts of Regina Bates, Michele Kuchinskes, Briana Lively, Sam Vitale, and Lindsay Hoglund. The offense kept control of the ball for the majority of the second half with outstanding efforts turned in by Jackie Mazza, Shea Macagnone, and Jana Diamond. The girls' next game is against Garden City at home on May 11.

The PAL girl's fifth grade Forest Green lacrosse team won a 10-6 decision against a formidable opponent from Mineola. Although in their first year, a very well coached Mineola team proved to be tough competition.

After Mineola opened the scoring, the Farmingdale girls answered with three quick strikes. Jordan Hasemann, Samantha Smith, and Alexis Rzempoluch tallied goals with Sarah Mulcahy assisting on the later two. Mineola scored next but Farmingdale answered again with Hasemann and Melanie Raso finding the back of the net. After what seemed to be a shaky start defensively the girls seemed to settle down. Megan Planz had her usual strong game in goal with 8 saves and the defensive presence of Cara Fellin, Sarah Boltja, Fiona Grubb, and Brianna Kane solidified the effort.

The midfield play really seemed to turn the game in Farmingdale's favor as the ground ball play and crisp passing of Alexa Musorofiti, Ellie Boltja, and Hannah Letourneau helped to keep the ball in Farmingdale's end of the field. Three first time scorers helped the offensive surge. Accounting for two goals was Lauren Connors, with Michele Mellina and Jackie Sonnenschein also contributing goals. Rzempoluch rounded out the scoring on a nice feed from Toni Roulet who did everything but score a goal in the game.

The coaches would like to thank the parents for their continued support and wish the girls good luck in their next game against Garden City on Sunday.

The Farmingdale PAL 3rd grade girls' lacrosse team had their first home game and defeated Huntington/Cold Spring Harbor by a score of 5-1. The Hurricanes did an excellent job of scooping the ball and passing to the open player. This led to goals by Amanda Rutig, Kaitlin Gaghan, Kimberly Kolodny, Justine Fernandez, and Alexandra Mosiello. Strong up and down play was led by Samantha Duranti, Stephanie LoCastro, Colleen Reynolds, and Megan Sullivan. Good defense by Alexis Irby, Jennifer Labas, Alicia Baccarella, Brittany Barton, Nicole Scimeca and Haley Eivers helped limit shots by the other team. A good offense was led by Tara Grzinic, Emily Glascott, Gina Ramos and Debbie Johnson. Goalies Charlotte Edwards and Alexandra Moseillo have really improved and each recorded three saves. Another good effort by all the girls contributed to the win.

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Farmingdale's fourth-grade PAL girls' lacrosse team improved to 2 - 0 with a 9 - 4 win over Point Lookout/Lido at home. The girls jumped out to a quick 4 - 1 lead behind the scoring of Kelly McPartland and Jamie Leone. But Point Lookout/Lido refused to quit and cut the Farmingdale lead to 4 - 3 in the third quarter. Farmingdale quickly regrouped with a key goal from Kayla Ernst who sliced through several defenders to make it 5 - 3. Kyra Ochwat and Kelly Sutherland also added goals as Farmingdale pulled away in the fourth quarter.

Numerous other players contributed to this win, especially Krislyn Engelke, Michelle Tiernan, Michelle Jacobsohn and Katie Brosnan. Goaltenders Megan Meritz and Kyra Ochwat were solid and they had help from defenders Katie Gallagher, Jennifer Martin and Megan Norman. Coach John Ochwat was pleased with the play of his entire team and he looks forward to another strong effort this Sunday at Manhasset.