Marinaro named All-State

Shoreham-Wading River senior midfielder Dianna Marinaro was named first team All-State in girls soccer this week, the third straight year she's earned All-State honors. The last two years she was second team.
Marinaro, who will play for the University of South Florida next year, was the only local player to receive All-State honors. The Wildcats had four players All-State last year.
Marinaro led the Wildcats to a 10-1-1 record in League VI this season and a berth in the Class A playoffs.

Longwood falls in semifinals

Longwood senior Nick Esposito/photo by Garret Meade

MIDDLE ISLAND--The Connetquot Thunderbirds advanced the Division I county finals with a 12-7 comeback victory at Longwood High School Friday night, ending the Lions season at 7-3.
The Lions held a 7-6 lead until Connetquot rolled off a 13-play, 77-yard drive with 1:15 left in the fourth quarter. Joseph Zuco capped off the drive with a touchdown from a yard out. The two-point conversion was no good.
Longwood took over 1:10 left, no timeouts and 67 yards away from the end zone. With under 30 seconds left Lions quarterback Eddie Wess was intercepted on a desperate heave down field to end the game. One kneel down made it official.
Amazingly, Connetquot will face Lindenhurst in the finals after the Bulldogs upset top-ranked William Floyd.
A Colonials-Lions rematch was not meant to be.
Connetquot struck first against the Lions on the second play of the game. Ryan Anderson threw a screen right to Jon Sternbach who took the ball 45 yards down the right sideline. The extra point kick was blocked by Sherif Saad, which looked like would be a pivotal play once the Lions' 7-6 lead looked like it might hold up.
Longwood grabbed the lead late in the second quarter on a long pass by Wess to Tommy Scala down the right sideline. The pass went for 53 yards and the extra point by Jaelisa Rehal gave the Lions the one point lead.
Longwood picked up only three first downs in the second half.

National Signing Day

Today is the first day of the early signing period for high school student-athletes. Rocky Point invited local media this morning to watch three students officially sign National Letters of Intent. All were lacrosse players:

Matt Palasek — Johns Hopkins University

Abigail Ross —  Long Island University, C.W. Post

Aimee Capps — University of Connecticut

More Rocky Point students are expected to sign in the future. The early signing period ends Nov. 19. After then the earliest date students can sign is April 8. Some sports — field hockey, track, cross country, soccer and water polo — can sign beginning Feb. 4.

For full coverage of NLI, check out next week's North Shore Sun.

Smit named Swimmer of the Week

Mount Sinai graduate and Olympic medalist Julia Smit was named the collegeswimming.com Collegiate Swimmer of the Week for NCAA Division I women based on her performances from Nov. 2-9.

A Stanford junior, Smit was honored for the fourth time in her career (twice as a freshman, once last year).

Smit dominated at the two-day Anteater Shootout hosted by UC Irvine. She won five individual events in the 100 free (twice), 200 back, 200 IM and 400 IM. She recorded NCAA 'A' standard times in the 200 IM (1:56.06) and the 400 IM (4:06.89). Her three other victories were 'B' times. Her time of :48.48 in the 100 free moved her into fifth place on Stanford's all-time top-10 list for the event.

Smit returns to the pool with Stanford Nov. 28-30 in Toronto, Canada for the Bell Invite.

One team left in football

Longwood is the last football team left among local teams. The Lions will host No. 3 Connetquot Friday night at 6 p.m. The Lions had to wait to see what day Floyd wanted to play before setting a date. Both teams will play at the same time so one team can't watch the other. The Lions weren't sure if Floyd would opt for the Friday game because of problems they've had controlling their crowds as was evident when Longwood played there in Week 2.

But the Colonials went with Friday night so that's when Longwood will go as well. Their games are the only two Suffolk County playoff games that night. It's the first time I can remember semifinal games being played on a Friday. It's been something people have complained about with all the playoff games happening at the same time on Saturday. So this is a good opportunity for football fans of other teams to head out and watch some real competitive Division I games. It should be fun and I'd expect pretty big crowds at both games.