Rockland field hockey: Goldsmith, Brown share top all-star honor; see other stars
Co-Rockland players of the year Shana Goldsmith of Clarkstown and Pearl River's Sophia Brown
The game is in their blood.
So much so that years of high school field hockey haven't been enough.
Both Pearl River's Sophia Brown and Clarkstown's Shana Goldsmith will pursue the sport in college, Brown playing at RPI and Goldsmith at the University of Scranton.
It's clear why those schools, among others, wanted the two.
Both players earned all-state field hockey honors this season, distinguishing themselves as Rockland County's top players.
As a result, they share The Journal News/lohud Rockland field hockey player of the year award, recognition Goldsmith also received last year.
Brown puts away hockey stick for one shorter
The fact Brown became an all-state player, recording 19 goals and 11 assists to become only the second player in Pearl River history to surpass 50 goals on varsity and also setting a program record with 23 assists, is pretty astounding.
After all, while some of the area's best players first started knocking a field hockey ball around in grade school and were playing games by middle school, Brown didn't pick up a field hockey stick until ninth grade.
But she was no stranger to sticks at that point.
Brown, who played mostly forward this fall for Pearl River, had played ice hockey for years, in part for the Ramapo Saints club program.
Brown, whose brother, Patrick (Class of 2020), played for Pearl River High's squad, played for the girls-only Rockland Rockies regional high school team until this year.
She talks about loving the game and of, at one point, wanting to play it in college.
But field hockey quickly displaced hockey on ice as her first priority.
"I kind of fell in love with it a lot. It just clicked," said Brown, who played field hockey for three years on the varsity level at Pearl River.
Pearl River coach Andrew Elbrecht considers Brown one of the best players in Section 1 despite her relatively late start in the game.
He pointed out in part that in a 5-1 win over Clarkstown, Brown had four goals and she also assisted on the other.
Some of her talent is no doubt natural. But Brown has also worked hard.
She joined the Rye Field Hockey Academy club team, run by Horace Greeley High coach Sukhi Sandhu, and she attended multiple camps and clinics.
Between those things and Pearl River practicing and playing, Brown quickly improved.
Brown credits Pearl River coach Andrew Elbrecht and fellow Pearl River coach Tracey Miller for helping her and her teammates "find our game."
Elbrecht, who calls her a "true team-first player," noted Brown developed into an offensive force, capable of dribbling around multiple defenders and of carrying the ball with only her left hand on her stick for as many as 75 yards, while using her other had to keep defenders at bay.
It's unclear how much of that she'll be doing at RPI.
Brown anticipates playing forward but said the coach made it clear she (or anyone) may be asked to switch positions,
"I agreed I was completely fine moving from forward to D," she said, noting she chose RPI, where she'll possibly study STEM, placing academics first.
Brown, who started the school year fourth in her class with an average exceeding 100%, also was attracted to the RPI Field hockey squad's "team atmosphere."
That's what she found with her high school team, which had a lot of fun going a program-record 15-3-1, with its only losses being to Rye, eventual Class B champion Lakeland and Class A runner-up Horace Greeley, the latter in the Section 1 Class B semifinals.
"Just the whole team and the coaches, just the whole dynamic. We all got along. It was a very tight team," the 17-year-old said.
It was also one that found joy where others might not, as when scoring in its 7-1 loss to Lakeland.
"We wanted to show we could compete. When we scored against them, our whole team was going crazy. They were up by a decent amount but it still felt incredible," Brown said.
"I think it's very important to realize what a very special team we had this year. The whole atmosphere was why we were so successful," she added.
Success 5.5 miles away at Clarkstown South
Depending on how it's viewed, Clarkstown had a bit more success, although its record was 11-4-1 and one of those losses was that four-goal loss to Pearl River.
But, playing in the largest-school, Class A, bracket, Clarkstown made it to the section final for the first time in its program's history.
And helping very much steer it there was Goldsmith, who had the Vikings' lone goal against Pearl River.
This season, Goldsmith, who started gaining all-section honors as a sophomore, often drew double and even triple teams due to her offensive skills. Despite that, she either scored or assisted on more than half her team's goals.
And she was equally strong on defense. In part, she excelled in one-on-one situations and proved to be a penalty corner killer.
"Prior to sectionals, no one scored on us (off a penalty corner) due to Shana's flying," coach Jordan Turner noted.
Goldsmith had a quasi highlight reel career, playing on varsity for four years.
But this year she had to overcome the fear of getting hurt.
During a Thanksgiving tournament in Virginia last year she got tripped up by a stick and tore an ACL.
She had surgery last December and missed her indoor and outdoor track seasons running for Pearl River. When she returned to field hockey in the fall, she did so physically fine and with a feeling of gratitude for all the support her teammates had shown her during her recovery. But she also returned worried.
Seeing that Goldsmith wasn't herself during the Vikings' first three games, Turner told her, "If you play nervous, you're just going to hurt yourself again."
While saying, it's still a "mental game," to take the field without thinking about her knee, her approach and, in turn, game changed for the positive following Turner's words.
"After that, I was playing to have fun. I was not taking anything for granted and I was trying to do my best," Goldsmith said.
She and her team certainly had a lot of fun, including during a pre-Turner-talk August trip to Florida to play and visit Universal Studios theme park.
Other highlights included team ice cream following a Senior Night win and more ice cream after the Vikings did what many thought they couldn't and beat Scarsdale 1-0 to reach that first-ever sectional final.
Goldsmith, who, in part because of her injury and successful rehab, plans to study kinesiology with the plan to become a physical therapist and work with injured athletes, said of the post-Scarsdale ice cream trip, "Some of us were crying. it was so special."
"When we were beating Scarsdale, we were watching the clock tick down. We were all so excited. We were jumping and screaming like crazy," she realled.
That would be the last celebration on a field as the Vikings fell to eventual state champion Mamaroneck in the final.
But it was a season of positive memories — a happy exit for Goldsmith, who, with some good friends in middle school , decided to try field hockey. Goldsmith and some of those kids, who are among nine players overall who were seniors this season, played other sports together as far back as kindergarten.
So, their final wins were that much sweeter.
"We all had the heart and drive to go far," Goldsmith said. "It was our last run together and we wanted to make it special."
Coach of the year
Jordan Turner, Clarkstown: After losing an extremely talented goalie and multiple other good players to graduation, many questions surrounded Clarkstown (Clarkstown South before a small merger with Clarkstown North this season). But Turner took his team to where it had never been before — the Section 1 Class A championship game. There it ran into a wall in Mamaroneck, which went on to win the state Class A title. But Clarkstown's 11-4-3 mark and noteworthy semifinal win over Scarsdale were huge achievements for Turner and his squad.
The rest of the first team
Olivia Castaldo
School: North Rockland
Year: Junior
Position: Midfield
Highlights: An all-section honorable mention recipient, Castaldo, whose stats don't begin to reflect her contributions, was the heart of the Red Raiders. Officially, she had two goals and two assists. But Castaldo, her team’s MVP, was a huge force on defense. She not only was able to stop some of the area’s top players, but also routinely seamlessly moved the ball down field to give her team a scoring chance.
Kayla Crai
School: Nyack
Year: Senior
Position: Midfield
Highlights: The four-year varsity player has excellent stick and dodging skills and a great shot, things that meant she was often marked by opponents’ best players. Still, she had 11 goals (two immediately after an opposition score and one short-handed) and two assists. She'll play next year for UMass-Dartmouth.
Madison Davis
School: Clarkstown
Position: Forward/Midfield
Highlights: Davis became dominant on the right side of the field in the latter half of the season. She had three goals and five assists and came up big multiple times in Clarkstown’s semifinal win over Scarsdale, which sent the team to the Section 1 Class A final for the first time in program history.
Olivia Galati
School: Clarkstown
Year: Senior
Position: Defense
Highlights: Clarkstown's leading scorer, Galati was also a shut-down defenseman. Very athletic, she often ignited an offensive charge after taking the ball away and running the length of the field. She was Clarkstown's primary shooter on offensive corners.
Megan McNamara
School: Pearl River
Year: Senior
Position: Defense/Midfield
Highlights: A valuable part of three straight league championship teams, the all-section honorable mention award winner officially had two goals and one assist. But she assisted in many other ways, in part making defensive plays to get the ball, then triggering offensive rushes by carrying the ball up the sidelines before dishing it off to attacking players
Mia Novello
School: Pearl River
Year: Junior
Position: Defense
Highlights: The all-section honorable mention player was assigned to cover opponents' chief offensive threat. And she did so superbly. Novello helped lead Pearl River to 10 shutouts. In 11 games, the Novello-led D allowed five or fewer shots on its net and in two other games it allowed no chances.
Kacey Pritts
School: Pearl River
Year: Junior
Position: Midfield
Highlights: Pritts, who gained all-section honors, scored multiple points in five games. She had 12 goals and eight assists on the season. She recorded the game-winning goal vs. Yorktown with only 2:10 remaining in regulation and went on to score twice against Yorktown in Pearl River's playoff quarterfinal win.
Emily Rodriguez
School: Nyack
Year: Sophomore
Position: Goalie
Highlights: The two-year varsity player and starter is known not only for her solid angles and ability to clear balls up the field, but also for her athleticism, which allows her to dive and slide tackle when needed. She did so for some of her 176 saves this season. They raised her career total to 330.
Caitlin Ruggiero
School: Suffern
Year: Senior
Position: Forward
Highlights: The three-year starter, who is recognized for her overall game sense, high-level stick skills and speed, gained all-section honors after scoring 14 times and recording five assists.
Second team
Isabella Cruz, Jr., D, Pearl River
Cassidy Deierlein, Sr., F/MF, Albertus Magnus
Ana Galati, Fr., F, Clarkstown
Ava Galati, Fr., MF, Clarkstown
Jaclyn Mahoney, Jr. MF, Pearl River
Michaela Porto, Sr., G, Suffern
Christine Rahal, Sr. D, Pearl River
Kayla Reilly, Sr., F, Pearl River
Clare Sullivan, Sr. D, Pearl River
Ava Thompson, Sr., D/F, Clarkstown
Charlotte Ullman, Jr., MF, Suffern
Rockland girls cross-country all-stars: Tappan Zee runner Dunn tops the list
Honorable mention: Nicole DeBellis, So, F, Suffern; Cassidy Dorilas, Jr., D, Albertus Magnus; Evelyn Fay, Jr., F, Nanuet; Emma Georgakopoulos, 8th grade, G, Pearl River; Adriana Giannetti , Sr., F/MF, Albertus Magnus; Catie Gorton, Sr., F, Albertus Magnus; Bella Guerra, Jr., D, North Rockland; Makaela Larkin, Sr., MF, Nanuet; Maggie Maurer, Sr., MF, North Rockland; Molly Mitchell, Jr., D, Suffern; Nevin Sullivan, So., F, Suffern; Ashley Wain, Jr., D, Nanuet; Daniella Wilmoth, Sr., F, Pearl River
Nancy Haggerty covers cross-country, track & field, field hockey, skiing, ice hockey, basketball, girls lacrosse and other sporting events for The Journal News/lohud. Follow her on Twitter at @HaggertyNancy.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Rockland field hockey: Goldsmith, Brown top stars; see others honored
