Garden City girls soccer's Sienna Castellano scores early in win over Massapequa

It took the Garden City girls soccer team all of 91 seconds to prove it wasn’t messing around in its title defense.

The Trojans scored less than two minutes into their season opener and that was all the offense they needed in a 1-0 victory over host Massapequa in a Nassau Conference AAA/AA-I girls soccer match on Thursday. After winning a county championship last year, Garden City spoke throughout the offseason about wanting to continue the program’s legacy. It didn’t take long for the words to be put into action.

“The expectations are high and that creates pressure, but in a way it also creates motivation as well,” coach Scott McAuley said. “They know that they are filling big shoes, that the whole community is kind of expecting it. It’s Garden City in general, you know how the sports are in GC. If you don’t win a county championship, it’s seen as a bad season.”

“We’ve been looking forward to this all summer, training for this,” senior goalkeeper Marisa Patrissi said. “We’re just so excited to get back. It’s a great start to the season … obviously everybody wants to go back-to-back, so it does add a bit more motivation to the season.”

Sienna Castellano scored 1:31 into the contest, corralling a loose ball and sending a shot into the bottom-left corner from 20 yards out for the game’s lone goal.

“It’s kind of a double-edged sword because on the one hand, it feels great [to score early], but on the other hand, you know you still have a heck of a lot of time on the clock,” McAuley said. “It would have been nice to put an insurance goal in the net, but the girls buckled down and played fantastic. Our keeper, Marisa Patrissi, did an amazing job.”

Patrissi made five saves while organizing the defense from the goal. Massapequa (0-2) made multiple late pushes, including creating a corner kick with less than a minute left, but Massapequa couldn’t get off a clean look and sent the final shot wide.

“I just knew I had to stay calm, keeping everything organized,” Patrissi said. “I didn’t want to get stressed and allow a hectic goal at the last second. It was mainly about staying calm.”

Garden City won the Nassau Class AA title last year, its first county crown since 2016. Massapequa has been a Long Island power throughout the 21st Century, but lost in last year’s AAA county final. Massapequa has won 18 county titles in the last 22 years.

“Massapequa’s an amazing program, so getting the win is definitely a confidence boost for the rest of the season,” Patrissi said. “It’s just a great overall way to start the season.”