Huskers beat Hornets in penalties

For the second year in a row, No. 10 Yorktown and No. 7 Lakeland met in the sectionals and went past regulation, with the winner being the same.  

After a scoreless regulation and two overtimes, Yorktown won at Lakeland 2-1 in penalty kicks to win the opening round Section 1 Class AA contest on Saturday afternoon. Last year, the two local squads played at Yorktown in the quarterfinals, with the Huskers winning in the first overtime. 

“We lost to Lakeland twice this season,” said Yorktown goalie Silvana Milizia. “We lost 3-0 and 1-0, in the first game, so it means a lot to win this game.” 

Yorktown coach Ryan Langkafel said his Huskers (5-9-3) have been a very resilient group all season.  

“We haven’t had much of the bounce luck to get goals going in but we know from that experience we just have to be resilient and we keep finding a way,” Langkafel said. “That’s why overtime and penalties exist, because you have to find a winner eventually. We were confident in ourselves to keep them off the scoreboard. We knew if we did that, we’d give ourselves a chance to win. So if we scored a goal in regulation, or if we had to in penalties, we knew we could do it either way.” 

With 6:20 remaining in the game, Lakeland’s Gianna Pace, after receiving a nifty pass from postseason JV call-up eighth grader Gia Iannazzo, had the home fans on the edge of their seats, but her shot from close range just went wide to the right of the goal.

Pace scored the first goal of penalty kicks, before Yorktown’s Anna Walling tied it at 1-1. After a scoreless round two, the Huskers’ Ahdra Bajrami made it 2-1 in what turned out to be the final score.  

Milizia made 10 saves, plus three in penalties. 

“I just chose a side [in penalties],” Milizia said. “I trusted my team to make the shots and they trusted me to save the goals. Trust is a big part of how we played today’s game.” 

As for regulation and overtime, Milizia’s philosophy was do, don’t think. 

“You don’t have to think, don’t think about it, just do it,” Milizia said. “Then you think about it, it gets in your head. So when you do it, the outcome turns out good.” 

Amelia Calisi recorded 10 saves for Lakeland (8-7-2). 

“We were able to keep it scoreless through regulation and double overtime by keeping our mind in the game and not letting little mistakes get to us,” Calisi said. “A lot of our motivation, especially mine was to win it for our seniors and to honestly leave everything out on the field because we didn’t know if this would be our last game together.” 

Lakeland coach Greg Doell felt his team played a good game overall. 

“It’s a game of inches sometimes and today those inches weren’t in our favor,” Doell said. 

Calisi said that playing such a big rivalry game in the sectionals put a lot of pressure on the Hornets, but they worked together and tried to keep their focus on getting to the next round.  

“We beat them twice during the season and coming to this game, I knew that they were going to want to come back from those two losses even harder,” Calisi said. “Yorktown is always a tough competition, and it’s crazy how history ended up repeating itself, with Yorktown being my out first round of sectionals and going into overtime. It stinks that after the penalty shootout we couldn’t come out on top. In the end I’m still proud of how much we have grown as a team.” 

Langkafel was proud of his team as well.  

“It’s a very familiar opponent,” Langkafel said. “Obviously a crosstown rival, a lot of the girls know each other. We saw them in the playoffs last year as well. So it’s always fun to play a rival, it just means that much more. I have so much respect for them (Hornets), they had a good group this year. They took us all the way to the end. It was a back and forth game. I am proud of my group of girls that they kept pushing and found a way (to win).” 

Yorktown will next play in the quarterfinals at No. 2 John Jay-Cross River on Oct. 27.  

This edition of Yorktown News went to press before the Oct. 27 game was played. For stories, scores and more, visit theyorktownnews.com.