For Beach Channel, it was simply a matter of believing.
“We didn’t have the mentality,” goalie Tianna Parkes said of her team’s two regular-season losses to Cardozo. “We already thought we were going to lose.”
But when the Dolphins lost to defending PSAL champion Tottenville in sudden death overtime to end the regular season, it changed the way they looked at themselves.
“It made us believe we could beat any team,” Parkes said.
The players reminded themselves of that feeling prior to their playoff game against the host Judges. No. 5 Beach Channel jumped ahead by four goals early and never looked back, beating No. 4 Cardozo 9-5 in the PSAL Class A girls lacrosse quarterfinals Tuesday. The Dolphins advance to play No. 1 Tottenville in the semifinals 5 p.m. Thursday on Staten Island.
“It’s been a thrill watching girls step up,” Beach Channel coach Sam Innes said.
His team scored the game’s first four goals and led 5-1 when Courtney Gallagher scored her third of four goals in the game with 10:37 left in the first half. The Judges rallied, scoring three straight times including consecutive scores from Malina Larin to pull within 5-4 with 6:49 remaining before halftime.
The Judges were unable to build off that. Parkes made a point-blank save on Carly Chierico and Lilian Zhang had a goal disallowed for running through the crease.
“They had a quick run and we wanted to be like, ‘Alright let’s go shut them up,’” Gallagher said. “We came back just as strong.”
Beach Channel (8-7) then got scores from Gallagher and Tashawna Reid and Parkes stopped a Angelina Borukhova shot to secure a 7-4 lead at the half. Cardozo (9-6) got within 7-5 on a Chierico score, but had a goal disallowed for the third time. No one scored again after a Tianna Holmes goal to make it 9-5 Beach Channel with 18:58 to go in the game.
“They feed off her personality and her energy,” Innes said of Parkes. “Everybody on this team loves her. When she is playing well the whole team plays well.”
Judges coach Lou DeCicco wanted to see the best season in program history end in a much different fashion for a group he was so proud of. He felt the officiating was in Beach Channel’s favor, making his girls believe they had to do more to overcome it. The three goals being disallowed, especially the one early in the second half, really took some of the steam out of his team.
“Every time we would start to come back there would be some call or some goal taken away that would make everyone go, ‘ugh,’” DeCicco said.
Beach Channel now prepares for a familiar foe. The Dolphins lost 13-6 in the semifinals last year to Tottenville, after beating the Staten Island school the two prior seasons in the final. After its last meeting, Beach Channel has another reason to believe.
“It really boosted our confidence that we could play like that against the No. 1 team,” Parkes said.