Leading off today: Devon Heaney scored the lone goal in penalty strokes to give Garden City a 4-3 win in the NYSPHSAA Class B field hockey semifinals after Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake had rallied from a three-goal deficit Saturday.
The Trojans are booked for a Sunday title-game rematch with six-time defending champion Lakeland.
Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake tied the score when junior Danielle Kempf scored on a penalty corner with four minutes left in regulation. Michaela Bruno took a penalty stroke minutes later, but shot wide and Garden City failed to score on a penalty corner in the final seconds of regulation.
Garden City had two chances in the final two minutes of overtime and missed a corner at the end of the second OT.
"It was very exciting," Heaney told Newsday. "Everyone was very nervous going into it, but we knew one team would come out as the winner and we wanted to be that one team. We all put the tears and a negative attitude aside and had a positive attitude going into the shootout."
Garden City owned a 3-0 lead with 13 minutes left in the opening half of regulation. Elise Zwicklbauer put home a goal late in the first half off an assist from Kempf. Five corners in the first five minutes of the second half started shifting momentum to the Spartans, and Courtney Kruzikas' deflection on a corner made it 3-2.
The frantic comeback may have left Garden City reeling, but it also drained Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake.
"Really," Spartans coach Kelly Vrooman told The Daily Gazette, "we were spent."
NYSPHSAA soccer story lines: Section 11 has advanced a total of four teams into Sunday's soccer championships in Middletown (boys) and Cortland (girls).
Among those advancing was Port Jefferson, a veteran squad that scored a 4-1 win against Caledonia-Mumford in the girls Class C semifinals. Junior Brittany Fazin, a transfer this fall from Sachem North, scored a pair of goals to help set up a final vs. Elmira Notre Dame.
Port Jefferson returned its roster intact after losing to Bronxville 3-0 in the 2014 Class B championship game.
"Last year, we went farther than we thought we could," junior Jillian Colucci told Newsday. "It brought us even closer. This year, we already have the chemistry, and we want to go home as champions."
Suffolk County's other girls finalist is Class A Islip, a 1-0 winner over Williamsville East thanks to a goal with 1:23 to play.
Lyndsey Sparks settled the ball inside the top of the box and fired a shot that hit the far post. The ball deflected off goalkeeper Sarah Panepento and rolled toward the goal line, where Dominique Bono followed up the shot and popped in the rebound. Afterwards, the on-field officials confirmed Sparks' shot did cross the goal line and would have stood up as a goal even if Bono hadn't made the split-second follow-up.
"It doesn't matter who scored," Bono said. "This means a lot because Islip has never come this far."
