Southampton Girls Soccer Staying the Course, Peaking in October Still the Message

It’s not how you start, but how you finish.

It might be the cliché of all clichés in sports, but it’s one Southampton girls soccer team head coach Sean Zay is continuing to stick with. Especially with what the final week of the regular season means for his team.

Starting on October 9, the Mariners play fellow Class B school Center Moriches, then after playing at Mattituck/Southold/Greenport two days later, they host Elwood-John Glenn for homecoming at 7 p.m. on October 14, play at fellow “B” school Babylon the very next day, and then finish the season at home against another “B” foe in Port Jefferson on October 21.

Almost every single one of those games could determine a playoff spot for Southampton. Sweep those Class B games, and, well, Southampton could very well find itself in the county final, if not outright county champions.

But not to get too far ahead, in the meantime the Mariners (1-3 overall) are playing the schedule before them. That included a 5-0 loss at Islip on September 10, then a 3-1 loss at home to Sayville on Saturday, both of which came after starting the season with a pair of victories — a 7-1 victory at home over Amityville on September 9 and a 2-1 nonleague win at Hampton Bays to open the season on September 4.

Par for the course when playing in girls Division III in Suffolk County, which includes both Class A and B schools. Both Islip and Sayville, Zay expects, will easily be state-ranked teams when the New York State Sportswriters Association releases its first rankings of the season, which could come as soon as this week.

Zay said, because of a tough schedule against some state-ranked teams, he’s going to be looking for the little victories in each game. Take last week for example, particularly against Sayville. Although his team gave up a fairly quick three goals, it didn’t give up anything the rest of the game, and the Mariners scored a goal. Senior co-captain Samanta Rea followed a bouncing ball into the box where the Sayville goalie bobbled it. Rea took possession of the ball, composed herself and put it in the back of the net.

Zay said that’s exactly what he wants to see, especially when the team has had a hard time scoring, for the most part. That’s mainly due, he said, to junior striker Reese Swiatocha nursing an injury early on.

“She’s just a pitbull as a striker,” Zay said of Rea. “She’s played defense for me for years, but in reality I could put her wherever. On that play, she just got all over their keeper who bobbled the ball. They made a mistake and [Rea] capitalized. She makes those things happen, and I really like the fact that she’s up in the front now, because when we’re healthy, she’s someone who is really fast and bothers center backs, so she could pair up nicely with someone like Reese to give us a little extra offense.”

Zay said there has been a few injuries here and there that have come up where he hasn’t been able to play what he expected to be his full lineup just yet. But that’s okay, he said. He’d rather those players make their way back slowly and be ready for that all important final week of the season.

“The message is to peak in October and be ready to go when we play teams in our classification,” he said. “We want to compete with everyone. We want people to know that we’re a tough team. We might be a small school, but we won’t roll over for you. And we want to learn. Recently I’ve been able to get some really young girls who probably wouldn’t have gotten much playing time in lately, and that’s been really helpful.”

Sophomore Natalie Glanz was credited with 13 saves against Sayville; Zay said she’s been playing great in her first full season up on varsity. She complements what the coach feels is a really strong defense, headlined by senior co-captain Emma D’Italia and junior co-captains Riley Cameron and Cameron Kieffer.

“I think Natalie feels like she can be a little bit more adventurous back there because our defense is really, really solid,” Zay said. “But it’s going to be how we get our offense going. Once some of these kids get back, I think we’ll be okay.”

Southampton played at Rocky Point on Tuesday and is scheduled to host Miller Place on Thursday, September 18, at 6 p.m., when the girls soccer team will be partnering with the field hockey team in playing for the Daniela Conte Foundation, a 501(c)(3) pediatric cancer foundation with a mission of providing financial support, raising awareness for pediatric cancer, and funding research to help kids fighting cancer.

September is national childhood cancer awareness month and Southampton varsity, junior varsity and junior high fall sports teams will be swapping out their laces on their cleats and sneakers to gold laces to show support for those families who have and/or are currently dealing with childhood cancer. Several families in the Southampton community, as well as staff members, have in the past, or are currently dealing with a child who is battling cancer or have lost a child to cancer. A QR code will be up on the video board at the varsity turf field and monetary donations will also be collected.