Sachem East girls soccer earns first outright county championship since 2007
Gabriella Arculeo, looking to gain possession, scored the lone goal in Sachem East's 1-0 win over Connetquot in the Suffolk Class AAA girls soccer final on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. Credit: James Escher
The youth movement is in full effect, and it is working for the Sachem East girls soccer team.
With only one senior on its 23-player roster, top-seeded Sachem East has completed a season-long dominance of its own county to become champion. The youthful team defeated second-seeded Connetquot, 1-0, in the finals of the Suffolk Class AAA tournament at West Islip High School, winning its first county title since the spring of 2021 when it shared the county title with Ward Melville.
It is the first outright county championship for Sachem East (14-2-1) since 2007. Suffolk’s fresh-faced champions will face Oceanside in the Long Island Class AAA championship game at Farmingdale State College at 4 p.m. on Sunday.
“I could not be more proud,” Sachem East coach Glen Monsen said. “Although their age may be young, they’re definitely much older in experience. They’re very wise, strong, physical players who play much older than their age. We’re going to enjoy tonight, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I’m excited for the future of this team and program.”
Neither team got much offense going, as each of them landed just three shots on target. In the 43rd minute, Sachem East got all the offense it needed. The team won a corner kick, but decided to run a play and turned the ball over. However, sophomore midfielder Hailey Lessuk immediately intercepted a pass on the left wing before sending it into the box from the 20-yard line.
Lessuk’s ball trickled through Connetquot’s backline and rolled loose in front of the net, creating a one-on-one between Sachem East junior forward Gabriella Arculeo and the goalkeeper. Arculeo connected with Lessuk’s pass in stride and snuck it under the goalie and into the back-left corner, giving her team a lead it never relinquished.
“We’re a really good family, so scoring for us made that so special,” Arculeo said. “I’m really proud. It’s really awesome to score the game-deciding goal and help my team — which is my family — keep going.”
Just 20 seconds later, Connetquot (14-3-1) made a bid to tie it, but Sachem East junior goalkeeper Paige Seaman batted the shot away to preserve the lead. That was the final legitimate scoring threat against Sachem East’s backend, which kept the final 30 yards of the pitch mostly clean for the game’s remainder to secure the title.
“We were always there for one another, so if a ball got through, we were always there to help someone else out,” sophomore defender Nicolette Sevimlioglu said. “I’m so proud of this whole team. We’ve had this one goal since the start of the season, and that goal was to reach this point.”
Mike Anderson is a high school sports reporter who has covered 12 sports so far at Newsday. He was the sports editor of Stony Brook University's campus newspaper for two years.
