Brooklyn Tech’s expectations have risen as quickly as its win total.
The Engineers girls’ lacrosse team entered its first season playing against the Public School Athletic League’s top competition just hoping to qualify for the playoffs and make a little noise. It was coming off winning a Class B city title, but took nothing for granted after losing 13 seniors.
“We did not think we were going to be good at all,” said senior midfielder Monica Garlinska.
Taking down league power Curtis in an early season scrimmage proved to Brooklyn Tech it was capable of more. Remaining undefeated and going on the road to beat Brooklyn rival Midwood for the second time this season by 9–7 on May 1 has the Engineers thinking about a city title as the regular season draws to close.
“Once we saw we could really compete against the other strong teams, we new this would be a good year,” said sophomore midfielder Breanna Flynn.
She watched this team continue its trend as a second-half club. Flynn scored one of her four goal with five seconds to go before the half to give her team a 4–3 lead. Midwood (7–7) tied the score when Monica Riskevich (four goals) scored off the opening faceoff of the second half.
Brooklyn Tech (14–0) took control from there by tallying three goals in the first 5:00 of the period. Flynn capped the spurt with a goal off a feed from Anna Kwong to give her team a 7–4 lead.
“After halftime we really adjust our game plan and we look to dominate the second half,” said Garlinska, who scored twice.
Flynn scored two more times, including on a slick move that saw her split two defenders on her way to the net for a goal that made it 9–5 in favor of Brooklyn Tech in the final minutes. Her emergence had helped Brooklyn Tech weather the loss of its seniors from a year ago, according to Engineers coach Anthony Cicolini.
The Hornets, on the other hand, struggled to get into an offensive flow. Midwood, which got two goals from Feyisola Soetan, hit a pipe twice and saw Brooklyn Tech take away some of its cutting lanes in the second half. Midwood scored twice in the game’s final minute.
“They play a little more of a zone defense,” said Hornets coach Michael Giordano. “Our girls not recognizing it or being used to it, it takes a little time to break into it.”
He also had to watch Brooklyn Tech goalie Alexa Euceda makes eight saves. Two came back-to-back late in the first half and she stopped a key shot by Dajana Reci on a restart with the Engineers up just a goal with 17:00 to play.
“I believe she was the MVP,” Cicolini said. “That game could have been turned around real quick.”
The victory keeps Brooklyn Tech rolling and it doesn’t plan on stopping until it earns a chance to play for a city title at the highest classification. It wasn’t an achievement the Engineers thought was possible when the year started, but lot has changed since then.
“After that first couple weeks, we realized, ‘I think we can handle some really good teams,’ ” Cicolini said. “For the last month I’ve been saying, ‘We are going to the championship.’ That’s our goal.”
