They played their hearts out for 80 minutes, but in the end the Huntington High School girls’ soccer team came up just short by the slimmest of margins, falling to host Connetquot in the county playoffs, 1-0.
The Blue Devils battled Connetquot to a stalemate through the first 70 minutes of the game. When Connetquot finally scored with about 10 minutes remaining, there was confusion on both sides and in the bleachers.
Huntington girls' soccer coaches John Walsh and Vincent Tannazzo. (Darin Reed photo.)
It appeared Huntington’s magnificent goalie Charlotte Maggio had stopped the shot, with the ball bouncing out and the two teams resuming play for a few seconds before the officials signaled the ball had crossed plane and ruled it a goal.
Maggio has been brilliant this fall, recording six shutouts in 11 starts and compiling 92 saves. The senior stopped nine hard shots at Connetquot and kept her team in the game.
Trailing 1-0, Huntington did everything it could to pull even, but it just wasn’t meant to be as Connetquot slowed down the tempo and ran out the clock.
“Today’s game was a tough one,” captain Jordan Forte said. “It’s not the way I would’ve liked to see the season end, but I am grateful that it happened. Right now the feeling isn’t the best, but I know that this game will eventually blow over and I will focus on all the amazing memories that Huntington soccer has given me.”
Some players cried during a post-game team meeting on the field with coaches John Walsh and Vincent Tannazzo. The seniors were especially emotional.
The Blue Devils had a handful of chances to score during the game, but were unable to convert any of them. “You played really hard and should hold your heads up high,” Walsh told the team after the game. “No one gave you much of a chance before the season and you proved them all wrong.”
Huntington’s players did play very hard; they had to in order to keep pace with Connetquot’s skilled and very well coached team.
“It was a very tough loss,” junior Teddi Carnesi said. “This playoff game was heartbreaking. Everyone put their heart out on the field. Overall, this season was amazing. We are an excellent team that really showed Suffolk County that we have skill and can battle with any team.”
Huntington will return a strong nucleus in the fall, although it will certainly miss its graduating seniors, who are all sad to see their time in a Blue Devil uniform come to an end.
“I am so beyond thankful that we were able to get through the season successfully and that we were able to have it,” Forte said. “This season every single girl came out ready to play every day. Every single day that we got the opportunity to have a bus ride, practice or have a game everyone was always laughing while putting in the hard work. At the end of the day we had an amazing season, made it to playoffs and we couldn’t have done that without every girl on the team and the coaches.”