Girls Lacrosse Wins In First Game Without Coach Jensen

By the looks of it on a gloomy Wednesday afternoon, you'd never know you were watching the Sayville girls lacrosse team in their first game .

But the Golden Flashes, seemingly on autopilot under interim head coach Adam Sznitken, held off a late Eagles rally to earn their first victory at Rocky Point in the program's history, 12-9.

"It was very important to the girls. They were talking the whole week about playing the rest of the season for coach [Jensen]," said Sznitken. "[We will be] trying to get into the playoffs and see how far we can go."

Emily Meier led Sayville with four goals, including a pair after the Eagles took an early 1-0 lead. The Golden Flashes also got three goals from Connie Neilsen, as well as a pair each from Emma Ferreira and Kimmy Marra. Marra also had three assists.

Leah Leddy stood tall in goal for Sayville, making 10 saves.

Following Meier's two goals, the Golden Flashes stormed out to a 9-4 lead at halftime. It was like coach Jensen never left.

"Everything that was out there on the field today, that’s not my coaching," said Sznitken. "That’s all from coach Jensen for the last two or three years for the girls that have been on the team and the beginning of this season. I know he’s home dealing with what’s going on, but hopefully he’ll get a little joy out of us coming here and getting a win."

The win avenged last season's semifinal loss to the Eagles, the eventual league champions.

Early in the second half, the Eagles cut into the Sayville lead, and got as close as 10-8. Caitlin Gargan led Rocky Point's attack with three goals.

"Rocky Point’s very good," said Sznitken. "They came back and we had to fight to win that game, and that’s what we did. They’re the champions of our league for the past four or five years. You can’t keep a team like that down. We might have lost focus for a couple minutes and they took advantage, but luckily we had a enough of a lead."