Six teams from the Massapequa Soccer Club played in the State Cup Open finals in Saratoga Springs after each team soared to the top of a previous competition at the Annual Lincoln Page Memorial Day Tournament. The Massapequa Power came home as State champions for the fifth consecutive year. Their next stop? The Regionals at Virginia Beach beginning on Thursday June 29 to July 3d.

"I think most of the credit has to go to the Massapequa Soccer Club and the community," said Coach Kevin Shanley, whose team, the Massapequa Terminators (under 15), were invited to the State finals.

"Most Definitely," said Rob Snyder, the organization's president. "It's a very family-oriented sport and we have a wonderful response from our community."

Tom Daly, the Massapequa Power coach agreed. "It's not like mommy and daddy dump the kids off at the field and then pick them up after a game or practice," he said. "There is tremendous family support both on the field and off, and that's nice."

Daly, a father of three, is a lifelong Massapequan and has been coaching with the league for twelve years. "This is just a continuation for my love of athletics," said Daly who also coached while in high school and college. "I believe it was my duty to give back to my community."

Assisting Daly is Scott McGlaughlin and Kara Gaziano, who are both part of the Adelphi University soccer teams, which may be an essential component to the Power's success.

"It was the dedication of the players and the coaching staff," Snyder said in discussing the amazing run each team has made for the State title. "They have had a good relationship working together."

Prior to making the trip upstate, Shanley described his team saying, "they aren't a team of superstars, but just a team." That mentality echoed to the girl's side where Daly also found his team to be "unfocused on individual play."

The Power faced off against the Yorktown Amazons and within the first five minutes they netted two goals from Stephanie Colon, who would end up with two on that day, along with Erica Bernhard. The rest of the goals came from the heads and feet of Lauren Muscarella, Karin Simonian, and Kara Salerno. Allie Griffin, the goalkeeper, held the defense in tact with a 6-0 shutout. One of the biggest factors as Daly described was the "flow and tempo" of the game, especially from Andie Arnold, Nikki Daly, and Muscarella, who "set the team up in position" to score all six, with assists added to their resume.

On the other side, the Massapequa Terminators faced another heartbreaking loss on penalty kicks for the second straight year to the same opponent, the FC Westchester '91 Boys.

Here's a little synopsis on how the game played out: Jeff Diana, finishing with two goals, got the offense started in the opening minute with the first netter of the game, enriching some energy into his team. Luck began to change when FC Westchester pulled away twenty minutes later for a one goal lead, but thankfully Steven Stefanak stuffed it right back to them, and eventually the battle was interlocked at three. To their dismay unfortunately, the Terminators fell hard on penalty shotsafter two overtimes, 4-2. The extreme weather conditions apparently did not benefit anyone at all.

"You know, we worked so hard, we earned it this year," lamented Shanley who also let it be known: "This time we deserved to win. We worked so hard. This time [though], it hurt a lot more."

How did the other four do? Well, the Force ended up losing to the New Hyde Park Lady Cougars 5-3, the Roughriders were shutout by the FC Somers Lasers 2-0, and the Revolution were ousted by BW Gottschee 3-1.

On the bright side, Massapequa did bring home another state champ in the Rascals, whose 6-0 win over the East Meadow ISA Magic, also led them to the Region One Championship.

Looking at the totals, Daly seemed to sum up the wins and losses philosophically. "It's more about the kids enjoying themselves," he said.

The Massapequa Soccer Club is part of the Long Island Junior Soccer League which keeps approximately 70,000 young athletes from Long Island and Queens on the field and kicking around the ball.