Wheatley boots way to championship

The top seeded Wheatley Lady Wildcats defeated second seed Carle Place Lady Frogs 5-0 in the Nassau B championship game Tuesday afternoon at Cold Spring Harbor High School. 
Tiffany Bernot and Nicole Hetzel led Wheatley with two goals each. 
Isa Rios also provided a goal to pace Wheatley’s attack, as they captured the Nassau Class B title.
Head coach Paul Paino said it felt great to come out on top and make amends for last year’s defeat against Carle Place.
“Last year, we were co-champions,” Paino said. “These guys beat us in penalty kicks and went on to play the Suffolk team. 
Now we have a chance to beat the Suffolk team.”
According to Paino, their game plan heading into the championship game was using their speed on the outside and have Bernot control the ball at midfield. 
Paino said Bernot, Rios, forward Allie Lamonica and defender Gretchen Keller contributed in stopping Carle Place’s top two players.
“Everyone did their jobs perfectly,” Paino said. “Tiffany did a good job marking their best player and Allie and Isa got a boost on the wing. Gretchen also did a great job defending their other big scorer.”
Paino said Hetzel, who didn’t score much in the regular season, played a great game as she and Bernot combined for four of the five Wheatley goals. 
Rios netted the final goal to secure a championship berth for Wheatley.
Paino said the biggest factor in the win was their attack and ability to sustain pressure, where they peppered the opposition with 11 shots on net. 
“We put the pressure on them,” Paino said. “Our wings, Allie, Isa and Tiffany had the ball in their end and were putting so much pressure on them all day long. They really didn’t have many opportunities to put pressure on us.”