Former Tottenville coach John Cucuzza sits with the players during a huddle. (Christina Santucci)
Curtis’ Jennifer Datan walks off the field after the Warriors’ loss. (Christina Santucci)
The Tottenville players wore their hearts on their faces.
The Pirates girls lacrosse team dedicated the season to Jaime Cucuzza, the wife of former coach John Cucuzza, who was diagnosed with lung cancer in December. They each had the letters “J.C.” written on their cheeks in eye black and played with a determination to not let one of their biggest supporters down after three straight defeats in the final.
“When we heard the news that he wasn’t coaching us this year, [there were] tears rolling,” senior midfielder Megan Kane said. “He is our coach. He is our second dad practically. When we heard it, it crushed us and we knew that we had to do this for Jaime. We had to do this for Coach Cucuzza and that’s exactly what we did.”
The girls were able to celebrate their 9-4 win over rival Curtis in the PSAL Class A final Sunday at Aviator Sports Complex with John Cucuzza on the sideline. He got individual hugs during the celebration, but hung back during post-game interviews. Cucuzza was later swallowed up by his former players after first-year coach Leonard Hession, a former assistant, told the team to give him the biggest hug.
“She is like their biggest fan,” said Cuccuzza, who called his 35-year-old wife after the game. “She is proud of them.”
The championship is top-seeded Tottenville’s first since a string of three straight ending in 2007. It fell to Curtis three years ago and suffered excruciating losses to Beach Channel the last two seasons where it let late leads slip away. That made this victory even more special and it also made them the first Pirates team to finish the league campaign unbeaten at 16-0.
“We were ready,” senior midfielder Valerie McCartney said. “We have been chanting, chanting and chanting all week in the pouring rain. Our shoes smell disgusting.”
They poured that emotion into their play right from the start. After trading goals in the opening minutes Tottenville scored seven straight, including five in less than three minutes to take an 8-1 lead at the half. With No. 2 Curtis (11-5) looking to take away Kane, everyone else stepped up. McCartney and Kane each scored twice. Nicole Tantillo had a goal and an assist and Patricia Kane, Christina Dadona, Maria Cacciapuoti and Klaudia Cios all chipped in a score.
“I have unbelievable seniors and even underclassman that refuse to lose,” Hession said. “We had a mission that we would refuse to lose and not win, but earn a championship”
Curtis made them do that in the second half after Allison Ulsh scored twice to start the half. Acacia Metz added a score to pull the Warriors to within 8-4 with 10:57 left in the game. Star midfielder Taylor O’Gara had a chance to score off a restart less than a minute later, but was stopped by Tottenville keeper Danielle Langan. Kane scored the game’s final goal shortly after.
“If Taylor would have executed it’s a different game,” Curtis coach Matt Gonzalez said. “It’s 8-5 with 10 minutes to go. That’s where you want it to be.”
Instead that championship trophy and the PSAL banner are exactly where Tottenville wanted them – heading back to Huguenot. Cucuzza called both the girls and his wife fighters and said he greatly enjoyed the group hug. The feeling of a title victory was one that the program hadn’t known for awhile and none of the girls had a chance to experience.
“I’ve never won a city championship before,” Megan Kane said. “Once it happened, I couldn’t believe it happened. It was like, ‘We just won the city championship.’”