Act III
O’Neill Defeats Liberty With A Trio Of Unanswered Goals To Advance To Semifinal Clash With Burke. Raiders Sweep Indians in 2011 With Pair Of Regular Season Victories And Playoff Win; Liberty 0-3 In Playoffs , Indians Vow To Exchange Tragedy For Happier Ending In 2012
Section Nine Class B Quarterfinals
James I. O’Neill 3, Liberty 0
By RICHARD A. ROSS
Scenes from the Class B boys quarterfinal clash between O'Neill and Liberty (Clockwise) Liberty's Pedro Garcia heads the ball as O'Neill's A.J. Pohl vies with him for the ball. O'Neill's Axel Ender and Liberty's Jorge Palma Reyes jockey for position on a ball that is rolling towards the near sideline. Liberty keeper Julian Spina deflects a ball as he goes skyward for one of his seven saves. O'Neill's Lucas Sussekind puts his best foot forward to advance a run up the sideline. Liberty's Andy Hazelnis kicks the ball by O"Neill's Jacob Ross.
WEST POINT, NY—Lights…I said Lights!.. camera, action.
Arriving at West Point’s Shea Stadium and watching players prancing in the dark, I wondered if this soccer quarterfinal would be staged as a shadow play.
I stood transfixed as Liberty and O’Neill practiced in the dark.
Repeated calls to the powers that be by O’Neill Athletic Director Debbi Crowe had thus far not shed any light on the lovely turf pitch, and this writer pondered whether he had driven all this way for naught.
Liberty's Sergio Diaz just misses one that grazes the outside of the post by inches.
Not to worry, at last somebody threw the switch and the field was bathed in bright light for the coming clash between the number
seven-seeded Indians and the number-three seeded Raiders.
As it would turn out, the prologue of the lights was just a foreshadowing of the next scene in the ongoing soccer enactment that has transpired between these two teams this year and before.
I chose the title of this piece with the stage very much in mind and there are reasons aplenty for deploying that metaphor.
“All the world’s a stage and all the men (and women) merely players,” wrote Shakespeare in “As You Like It.
The Bard’s formula for both his tragedies and comedies involved their telling in five acts in which rapt audiences would have to wait until the conclusion of the fifth act to discover the final outcome.
For Liberty and O’Neill, this was indeed Act III in more ways than one. This was the third meeting of the Class B Division IV rivals
this year. O’Neill escaped the first encounter by the score of 1-0, a game in which Liberty missed a penalty kick that might have given the Raiders three ties this season instead of two.
Liberty's Brendan Siegel and O'Neill's Gaelyn Ashley vie for a ball.
Speaking of threes, that Thursday game happened to be Liberty’s third consecutive game that week. Traveling to O’Neill for their first game the next Tuesday, the young, still somewhat fatigued Indians came out “flat from the beginning,”
according to Coach Deb Simpson. The Raiders won Act II handily by the score of 5-2.
So this quarterfinal encounter would indeed constitute Act III for this season. In addition, this was Liberty’s third appearance on the stage of sectional play. In Act I of that drama, they lost 3-2 to O’Neill in a cathartic 2009 tragedy wherein they found themselves down 3-0 by the end of the first period, only to score two quick goals early in the second and witnessing a point-blank potential game-tying misfire as Tim Burgio sent a dead-on, one-on-one shot in front of the keeper over the top of the cage instead of into the back of the net.
Last year’s 4-0 loss to Tuxedo (Act II) was a somber affair indeed as the senior-laden team had their high hopes literally blown away on the windy pitch at Faller Field by the swirling Tornadoes.
That brings us to Act III on the sectional stage and for Liberty’s four seniors, Andy Hazelnis, John Kolarik, Charlie McNellis and Erick Cuellar, the hope was that this game wouldn’t warrant their final bow.
From the O’Neill standpoint, its 3-0 victory over Liberty in this game would suggest that good things do indeed come in threes. The talented Raiders would love nothing better than to beat Burke to avenge a 2-1 September 16 loss and to have the last word in Act III with the Eagles following their 2-2 tie on October 21. A win by the Raiders would take them back to the finals,
the stage of their 2009 Section Nine championship, won 2-0 against nemesis Burke.
Should O’Neill prevail over Burke, number-one seeded Spackenkill could be their opponent in the finals, should the Spartans dispense with number-four seeded Ellenville in the other semifinal.
Spackenkill beat O’Neill in the finals in 2004, 2005 and 2006. (Wow, there is that number three again.) Halloween was already spooky enough with the ghostly field, a hazy halfmoon and the speculation as to whether we were in for a trick or a treat. All we needed now was the three witches from Macbeth.
Both teams came out highly energized. Liberty’s verve was in part, a product of nerves. As Simpson would point out, very few players on the squad had any postseason experience. For its part, O’Neill seemed a bit ramped up as Coach Ken Hall preached a slower, more methodical approach from his perch on the bench.
Liberty got the game’s first direct kick about 2:30 in but Pedro Garcia’s attempt sailed wide right. O’Neill wasted no times in authoring one of its quick sideline runs but the Indians turned it back as Sergio Diaz’s first shot sailed over the top of the
cage.
“Possess,” yelled Hall. “Keep the pressure on,” advised Simpson.
O’Neill junior Netza Alberran just missed a wide open look at 4:44. A.J. Pohl missed one two minutes later as the Raiders began to unveil their speed, fine passing and efficient style of play. Junior Gaelyn Ashley inserted himself between Garcia and the net with a fine play to keep things scoreless.
At 9:40, Pohl sent one into the right back corner of the net with an assist from Lucas Sussekind for the 1-0 lead. Keeper Julian Spina had come to out to the front left post to defend but Pohl angled it by him for the easy score.
“It’s not over,” came the battle cry from a Liberty player I couldn’t readily identify. Liberty had a quartet of successive corner kicks
that availed nothing. O’Neill was soon rocketing successive shots as they pressed the attack. In between these the game was being defined by highly competitive play between the 20’s as each team looked to control the 50-50 balls. O’Neill was getting the better of that battle which led to great transition strike attempts up the sideline with potentially lethal crosses.
At 25:00 O’Neill junior Axel Ender sent a header into the net off a corner kick with Pohl providing the assist. The Raiders now led 2-0.
A laser shot by Ender nearly made it three-zip but Spina made a nice save. The fiery play continued but Hall wasn’t satisfied, “Too many touches..play it into space,” he counseled, imploring his team to resume itsrapid forward-moving style.
Liberty had its chances. Hazelnis missed one that sailed just wide of the cage at about 34:20 in but the Indians had their best chanceof the night as Sergio Diaz angled one towards the far post. It missed by mere inches as keeper John Michael Patrick had leaped to stave it off.
O’Neill took the 2-0 lead into the halftime break.
Liberty came out with renewed vigor with early shot attempts by Brendan Siegel and Diaz.”That’s better,” yelled Simpson. Siegel sent one over the top but at the other end, Albarran just missed one right in front of the box at 6:39.
At 13:00 minutes in Jake Elliot threw it in and Alberran sent it home for the 3-0 lead. Garcia had a nice chance minutes later but his shot went high and skittered along the football post crossbar just behind the net.
Meanwhile, Diaz had switched to play defense, something he has done before to try and give his team a chance by using his defensive skills to stabilize the game while leaving the scoring chances to the strikers up front.
A trip of Zach Maniatis led to a Liberty direct kick and then a corner kick. Garcia’s kick was repulsed by O’Neill senior captain Pat
Granger. At 32:00 minutes officials issued a yellow card to O’Neill’s Gaelyn Ashley as players were holding each other. He left the field looking dejected but was comforted by Hall.
In terms of yellow cards, the postseason represents a new slate so aside from having to sit out the remaining ten minutes or so, there would be no lasting consequences for the talented junior.
A fight to the end: O'Neill's Lucas Sussekind and Liberty's Jorge Palma Reyes race for a ball on the near side of the field.
The final whistle signaled O’Neill’s 3-0 victory, its 12th win of the season against three losses and two ties. Hall sized things up
thusly, “The first time we played them this year was a very tight game,” he reflected.
Asked about his game plan coming in, he noted, “We just wanted to possess the ball and take advantage of the big field. We’re not used to playing on a field like this. We wanted to use the width of the field to possess the ball and then hit the open man coming through.”
We have a bunch of guys who can play a lot of different positions. Two of our defenders started in the midfield and up top for us last year. Senior Manny Vasquez has been with me for four years. He’s played every position on the field. Jacob Elliot was our striker last year,” he noted. “So when somebody gets out of position, we’ve got somebody to fill in,” he added referencing his team’s diversity.
Of course having an agile keeper who is a big kid helps immensely. “He is a big kid. I’d love to see
him hold onto the ball even tighter,” said Hall.
O’Neill lost its first game of the season to Yorktown, Its other defeats came against Burke and Goshen. “I would like another crack at Burke,” he concluded. ‘He got his wish as Burke beat Highland 5-0.
Simpson observed. “We didn’t have a lot of guys on this team with any postseason play and several of them had said how nervous they were. You saw that. They were a little too hesitant to take that first step or to over-commit too soon. And with these guys you have to be there right away.
O’Neill was making great runs down the side and looping around and we were losing them on the width of the field. I commend them. They moved the ball very fast and seemed to know where each other were at all times,” she added.
“This is a really young team with only four seniors and just two of them were starters last year,” said Simpson of her cohesive group which finished its season at 9-7-1. I give them a lot of credit. They never stopped fighting,” she said proudly.
Each keeper had seven saves in the game.
Thus concludes Act III, but by the Shakespearean formula, Act IV augurs the further complication of the plot, while Act V constitutes the climax of the play.
I for one, can’t wait for the curtain to go up on the ensuing compelling scenes.
For an album of photos, visit www.sportsinsights.smugmug.com
