The 2022 season has seen the Garden City Lady Trojans repeat as Nassau Class B Champions for the second consecutive year. They have an overall record of 13-3 and will be playing in the Long Island Championship game this Sunday at Stony Brook University against Westhampton in hopes for their second straight LIC title. Three of their seniors that have been an integral part of their success are Carla Curth, Caitlin McNaboe, and Meghan Rode. Curth and McNaboe have had big senior seasons with Curth having a stat line of 21 goals and eight assists, and McNaboe tallying 26 goals and two assists. Rode has been out for much of the season with a torn ACL, but she has still played a huge presence in the teams success on the sideline.
Being on the sideline Rode says that she has been able to see the game from a different perspective and watch a lot of players step up I her absence. “It’s amazing to see how many players stepped up. Last year we had our whole defensive line seniors so we didn’t return any off our defenders, and Caitlin was our only retuning midfielder, and then me and Carla at attack. Just to see the younger girls step up its honesty amazing.”
The team has gotten plenty of production from various players all season long and they are coming off of an exhilarating win in the county final where they got a 9-8 win over Long Beach. It went right down to the wire but they came out on top on the game winning goal by McNaboe assisted by Curth with 1.7 seconds remaining on the clock to send them to the LIC. McNaboe described the mindset in that situation and how they were hoping to avoid overtime after allowing the tying goal with 13 seconds left.
“Going up to the draw we knew we needed it. There’s 13 seconds left and we could do anything with that, I think just getting the draw and running down the field and just trying everything you can. Carla passed the ball with a girl on her and it was just the perfect pass. We just had the mindset that we don’t want to go into overtime.”
Curth shared how in the moment for her she figured that someone would be open when she made the pass. “I just know Tori (Ottomanelli) got the ball and she brought it down and I got the pass just thinking do I drive or do I pass… there’s just so many things rushing through your head and I just knew someone had to be open cause I didn’t get the shot off so some one has to be open in the middle. Caitlin was flying and I gave her the pass and she got it in and it was just so exciting.”
These three seniors as well as the entire team are on a quest to win not just the Long Island Championship but also a state championship for what is a very storied lacrosse program that has a lot of history. Their LIC game will be the second championship game on Sunday at 2:00.
Check out the full interview down below featuring these three seniors!
