All hail the champs!

The Massapequa High School girls' soccer team has ended the season on top of the heap in all of New York State.

On Saturday, in a game played at Binghamton Alumni Stadium, the Lady Chiefs pulled out a 1-0 win over North Rockland to claim the Class AA state title.

The Lady Chiefs scored the game's only goal with 14:30 left in the second half. Junior Brittany Williams kicked in the winning goal off a missed shot by Victoria DiMartino, who had just rebounded a shot from her older sister, Gina.

The Lady Chiefs finished their championship season with an outstanding 18-1 record. In the title game over North Rockland, Massapequa was relentless on offense, out shooting the opposition by a solid 21-7 margin. All that aggressiveness paid off when Brittany Williams scored the winning goal, one that was held up by the Lady Chiefs' stingy defense.

In order to reach the final game, Massapequa had to defeat Greece Arcadia, which went into the semifinal game with an undefeated record.

However, in this game, the Lady Chiefs had no problem in dispatching their opponents. Massapequa scored an easy 6-1 victory, with Gina DiMartino completing the hat trick for the winners.

Massapequa not only won the state title; they also did it under trying circumstances. Injuries are part of the game, but the Lady Chiefs lost up to eight players due to such injuries, including junior Brittany Butts, who was lost for the entire season with an ankle injury.

Some of the members of the championship team, including Gina DiMartino, will be graduating. Others will be back for another year, as excellence on the soccer field promises to remain a Massapequa tradition.

Meanwhile, the Massapequa football team wasn't as fortunate in its quest for a Nassau County Class I title. For the second consecutive year, the Chiefs were runners-up to the title, as they lost to Baldwin, 32-7.

The Chiefs, who finished the season with a 7-3 record, had lost earlier in the year to Baldwin and this time out, the results were no different. Baldwin scored on its first possession and jumped out to a 18-0 lead before Massapequa was able to put points on the board. Massapequa's John Pesce scored on a 11-yard run to make the score 18-7, but Baldwin came out strong in the third quarter with a 52-yard touchdown run by Ricky Manigat to up the lead to 26-7, giving Baldwin an advantage that would never be threatened.

The Chiefs were hampered early on by an injury to Christ Hurst, who pulled a hamstring on the first play from scrimmage.

In all, Baldwin had 25 first downs to eight for Massapequa. In total yards, Baldwin outpaced Massapequa, 446-111.

Earlier, the Chiefs had advanced to the final with a thrilling 7-6 come-from-behind win over Uniondale. In that game, Massapequa prevailed on a touchdown pass from Christ Hurst to quarterback Steven Bentz, who had earlier handed the pigskin off to Hurst.

Finally, the girls' volleyball won their sixth consecutive Nassau County Class AA title with a convincing 25-23, 25-14, 25-21 win over Baldwin.

The win allowed the Lady Chiefs to advance to the Long Island championship game against Ward Melville, where the season ended in disappointment, as Ward Melville won all three games.

So while the football and volleyball squads did not reach the pinnacle of success, the state title for the girls' soccer squad more than made up for those disappointments. As the fall sports season comes to an end, it's hard to argue with the claim that Massapequa High School sports are about the most successful on all of Long Island.