MSG girls soccer battles wind, Rocky Point in homecoming defeat

The MSG girls soccer team had a second difficult opponent to contend with besides Rocky Point on Friday afternoon: the wind.

And not just any wind — a nor’easter bearing down on the North Fork, with gusts from the northeast as strong as 40 miles per hour, turned the game into a sometimes unpredictable and tricky affair at Mattituck High School’s homecoming.

The visiting team took advantage of the wind behind its backs in the second half, scoring twice to record a 3-2 victory in the Suffolk County Division III contest.

“A tale of two halves,” MSG head coach Chris Golden said.

Whether the teams played with or against the wind, players were forced to work harder moving the ball.

“When I was playing with it, I feel like it made everything push farther [up field],” said freshman midfielder Charlotte Reiniger. “When I was getting through balls to Devin [Stanton], they went out sometimes. Playing against it, [balls] kind of sat and stayed. My free kicks didn’t go as far, no one’s did. Same with Rocky Point.”

“It was pretty hard to get the ball with the wind,” added sophomore Sophia Boyle, who scored MSG’s second goal. “It was so hard to determine where it was going.”

MSG (2-5-1, 1-5-1) played with the wind at its backs in the opening half.

“The whole plan was to try to capitalize on it,” Golden said.

The Eagles (4-3-1, 3-3-1), however, found the net first when Maija Koski tallied the first of her two goals, scoring from the right side four minutes and 30 seconds into the match.

MSG tied it at 1-1 at 34:58, when Stanton tapped home a rebound of her shot from point-blank range past keeper Cadence Adamo (six saves).

“Just follow through and always be there for that rebound,” said Stanton, who recorded her team-high ninth goal.

Despite playing with the wind, the hosts scored once in the opening half.

“I feel like we could have buried some more chances,” Reiniger said.

Rocky Point struck twice within a short span in the second half, as light rain started to make things more challenging.

Koski powered in an impressive 25-yard drive from the left side at 54:50 for her 10th goal. An open Abigail Hansen added an insurance tally, her sixth of the season, at 59:07.

“The two times they scored it curved, because I didn’t time it correctly,” MSG senior keeper Hunter Mackey said of the wind. “It’s hard to tell where it’s going. Sometimes it might seem like it’s going right, but then suddenly goes left. The last one, she curved it really good back post.”

MSG pulled one back on Boyle’s third goal of the season off Ida Reiniger’s feed, to make it 3-2 at 73:51.

“It happened so quick. Because my nose is so messed up, I was so dizzy,” Boyle said of an injury. “I just ran to the back post. I saw that there was nobody [covering her]. I took a step and just shot it with all my power.”

Boyle was forced from the field at 53:17, suffering a bloody nose after a player smacked her in the face. Trainer Emma Fasolino worked on Boyle, who returned to action with cotton balls in her nostrils at 64:15.

“A girl went to turn, and she smacked me with her knuckles, and I just fell,” Boyle said. “We’re going to the hospital right now to see if it’s broken.”

Boyle had no intention of sitting out the rest of the game.

“I didn’t want to let my team down,” she said. “I looked at the scoreboard and saw that we were losing by two. I was determined.”

Buoyed by the goal, MSG pushed forward in the final minutes for the equalizer.

“Everyone up!” Golden shouted to his team with 75 seconds remaining.

MSG, however, fell short.

“We had some chances,” Golden said. “Rocky Point held tough. But it’s a credit to the girls.”

The loss made MSG’s playoff push more difficult, but the team won’t give up.

“Still hoping to make the playoffs, although it’s definitely going to be really hard after losing this game,” Stanton said. “We kind of needed this one.”

Added Charlotte Reiniger: “We have a big group graduating this year. We’re working towards getting better. We want to make playoffs.”

With players from Mattituck, Southold and Greenport, MSG will have another opportunity to win at another homecoming — Southold’s — against Miller Place on Friday, Oct. 2 at 4:30 p.m.