The College of Staten Island will make their seventh trip in the last eight years to the CUNYAC Championship Final, punching their ticket via a 6-0 win over visiting No. 4 York College in semifinal play this afternoon at the CSI Soccer Complex. The top-seeded Dolphins extended to 13-4 overall with the win, their highest win total in program history, and completed their 2011 season undefeated at home, with a 9-0 mark. York College, in their first competitive year as a varsity program, finalized their initial campaign at 1-13.
The Dolphins, who had taken 8-0 & 4-0 wins over the Cardinals in the regular season, needed only a minute to score the game-winning goal, as a Melissa Gelardi cross from the right side found CSI leading scorer Demi-Jean Martorano, who punched in her 18th marker of the season to make it 1-0 exactly one minute into the contest. CSI would add four more goals in the initial stanza, as the Dolphins out-shot the Cardinals in the frame, 20-1.
The next three goals would come off of the leg of sophomore Natalie Tombasco. The front-line sparkplug first connected at 5:59, when Amanda Percaccio launched a long lead pass up the middle of the field which skipped past two York defenders and onto Tombasco’s foot. Tombasco raced in one-on-one from there and beat YC keeper Vanessa Rivera, who made 13 saves in defeat. Just under nine minutes later, Tombasco connected off of Gelardi’s second assist on the day, turning a lead pass and going far side for the goal. At 23:42, Tombasco completed her natural hat-trick, this time earning a turnover near midfield and then racing in to power in a shot from short range to make it a 4-0 game.
To put a cap on the first half scoring, freshman Jean Notholt tallied her first career goal, as a Martorano pass fluttered past Samantha Wysokowski and landed to Notholt, who blasted her shot in to give CSI the huge cushion.
CSI emptied their bench and gave quality minutes to the entire lineup the rest of the way. Play was a bit more balanced in the second half, but CSI out-shot YC, 13-0. The team hit paydirt at 68:12, when Notholt got sprung on the far sideline, and put a beautiful pass forward for fellow frosh Matea Marie DeNoble, who rocketed a lining shot into the net for the game’s last tally.
CSI finished with a 33-1 edge in shots (20-0 on goal), while also holding an 8-0 edge in corner kicks.
By virtue of the win, CSI will earn a trip to the CUNYAC Championship Final on Saturday at 4pm at Randall’s Island. The Dolphins will take on No. 3 John Jay College, a 1-1 (PK) winner over No. 2 CCNY in the conference’s other semifinal.
