Lady Vikings Lacrosse Tops Oceanside in First Round

The Schreiber Lady Vikings varsity lacrosse team improved to 15-0-1 on Wednesday and showed that they were more than ready for the playoffs by defeating the Oceanside Sailors, 17-10, at Oceanside High School.

The playoff atmosphere was set by a large and raucous crowd and a very rough first half which saw the No. 4 seeded Sailors receive three separate yellow cards.

The first half was as back-and-forth as it gets and featured four lead changes. Junior goalie Samantha Tilts made several key saves to keep the game close for fifth-seeded Schreiber, and junior captain Alexa Froccaro had three goals to end the half tied at 5.

But two bad penalties, including a slash which injured sophomore sensation Christina Commons, gave the Lady Vikings a two-man advantage to start the second half. Froccaro scored just over one minute into the half on the power play to give the Lady Vikings a 6-5 lead.

Schreiber followed Froccaro's goal with six more from four different players to open up a 12-5 lead.

"The game was tied 5, and they showed a lot of heart and picked it up when they needed to," coach Raquel Piraino said after the win. "Other people stepped up and the scoring was spread out. We had seniors step up like Sara Lee. She scored two goals. That's what you need in big games — for other people to step up."

The Lady Vikings grabbed their largest lead of the game on a goal by junior captain Jackie Froccaro to make it 14-6, but the Sailors countered with three goals of their own to cut the lead to 14-9.

After a timeout by Coach Piraino, Alexa Froccaro took over and scored three goals in under two minutes to clinch things for Scrheiber.

In a game in which the Lady Vikings' offense scored 17 goals, it was Tilts magnificent play in goal that stood out.

"It's so funny because we're very hard on her," Piraino said of her goalie. "We basically didn't let them score for about 12 to 13 minutes in the second half, so for us to give up those 'garbage goals' at the end, obviously I don't like that to happen. But Sam [Tilts] came up with the big stops when we needed to change the momentum and that's just about all I can ask of her."

Alexa Froccaro finished with seven goals and two assists. Commons and sophomore Kaitlyn Brown combined for five goals, senior captain Ali Feldman had seven assists, and Jackie Froccaro added three goals of her own and won a number of important draws to keep the Sailors out of the game.

"Jackie [Froccaro], our center, stepped up big too," Piraino added. "She won practically all of the draws in the second half, which was one of the changes we needed to make in a fast-break type of playoff game."

The Lady Vikings have a large task at hand as they look to take down the No. 1 seeded Farmingdale Dalers in the Class A semifinal at Denton Avenue Field on Tuesday, May 25, at 4 p.m.