Somers Nips Yorktown; Locals Enter Turn Unsure about Future

Carmel Upsets State-Ranked RCK; Briarcliff No.1 in Class B

By Ray Gallagher, Examiner Sports Editor @Directrays

Somers senior striker Brady Leitner has been playing on another level this fall with a pair of hat tricks and his second two-goal game in the last four under his belt, and the four-year veteran has had enough of a sample of the Somers/Yorktown rivalry to know the Tuskers better bring it because youthful Yorktown – the reigning Section 1 Class A champs – will always pack a punch.

Leitner brought the surging, state-ranked (No.15) Tuskers back from a 1-0 deficit after Husker hotshot Nick Varela broke through for the game’s first score. Leitner tickled the twine twice in Wednesday’s 2-1 win over visiting Yorktown, assists coming from fellow seniors Nate Cohen and Lucas Arbelaez.

“Brady has really stepped it up big time,” Somers Coach Brian Lanzetta said. “This is a huge rivalry game when we face Yorktown and the boys made us proud today.”

Varela, a senior captain, has been an impressive leader, taking the bull by the horns for what Coach Zoran Milojevic called ‘New Blood’ in Yorktown.

“ I have a totally new team that I am trying to mold into a contender in the years to come,” the coach said.

Varela, who burst onto the Section 1 circuit as a key junior during Yorktown’s second Section 1 championship since 2017, is at the core of the rebuild.

“I agree with coach about the new blood,” Varela said. “I do think we’re going to get better as the season progresses. We do have a bunch of new guys rotating in the squad this year and the more we practice, the more we build up chemistry. It’s not gonna be easy but we have it in us to go far again.”

Doing so will likely include taking a postseason run at Somers, heavily-favored, state-ranked (No.1) Scarsdale and/or No.3 Eastchester.

Class A LAKELAND notched a 2-0 win over AA PEEKSKILL when Anthony Abbondanza and Lucas Morotti each scored off assists from Silvio Ahmataj and Vinny Karaqi. Seven saves from Hornet G Oban Rader resulted in a clean sheet that helped produce Lakeland’s initial state ranking (No.20), but the road flows through No.1 Tappan Zee, the crystal clear favorites in Section 1.

“There has been some great soccer being played and some fantastic games,” Lakeland Coach Tim Hourahan exclaimed! “The sectional tourney will bring some amazing moments for sure.

Hourahan is hoping his schedule will prepare the Hornets accordingly.

“For my team, I feel we do play one of the toughest schedules out there in Section 1 this year,” he said. “We have four games against teams that won a sectional title last year (Yorktown, Beacon, Briarcliff, Haldane #StateTitle). We’ve played three of those games so far and went 2-1.

Also, add to those matches a game with a 19-1 Tappan Zee team and then a game with a Somers team that we play in round two of the HV cup and our schedule is loaded for sure.”

Lakeland (7-3-1) does have three blemishes through 11 games. However, those were against undefeated TZ, undefeated No.1 Class B Briarcliff (8-0) and surging rival WALTER PANAS.

“Both of those teams are rolling again with a ton of returning talent and we understand the level necessary and what the bar is in Class A,” Hourahan stated.

Since the loss to Tappan Zee, Lakeland has gone 6-2-1 and only given up eight goals with Rader anchoring the cage.

“We have played much more consistently in the back and we are leaning on our defense,” Hourahan said. “In order to compete with Tappan Zee and Rye we will need a bit more consistency in scoring. We create enough and are getting healthy with some key players, so we hope to finish at a higher rate, and I really like our chances to compete with the top programs.”

The Hornets took on a vastly improved Panas club Saturday morning on a slick track, which played to Panas sniper Koky Duarte’s benefit when he scored in the game’s second minute for a 1-0 lead and then added another in a “wake-up-Lakeland” win.

“We have returners who finally bought into our game plan that was instilled,” Panas Coach Peter Pryschlak said. “We play team soccer and share the ball. Our senior class is committed and driven. We have experience at all positions at the varsity level. It comes down to execution. Our captains (Koky Duarte, Alex Guevara, Nick Gutierrez, and Jr. Lucas Sardinha) have set expectations high for this team. Everyone on the team plays an important role. As a senior, Koky wants to leave a mark with Panas Soccer. He wants to put Panas soccer on the map.”

After that win, consider it done.

Panas was all over HEN HUD in a 7-0 takedown behind two goals apiece from  Daniel Coello and Vinny  Pascente and single scores from Ronak Das and Duarte, who added a pair of assists while Tommy Piriz, Alex Guevara Cristiano Ferreira and Jahncarlos Ortiz set up one goal each.

While BYRAM HILLS remains undefeated, Bobcat Coach Mat Allen admits there is plenty of work to be done if his team is to truly contend with the upper crust of Class A.

The Bobcats worked a hard-fought 1-0 win over host BREWSTER when Jacob Berland hit the game’s lone goal from Billy Gillespie and G Gavin Nichols stopped all five shots from the Bears.

Byram also crushed Riverside, 6-0. The Bobcats have the highest of standards due to their incredible history, but the 5-0-3 record is a tad deceiving when pitted against their past and the number of big wins the program has incurred.

“Our team was fairly outplayed in those ties, so the biggest thing I’m happy with is our team’s resilience,” longtime Coach Allen said. “We have bent but haven’t broken. I am pleased with the scoring we are getting from a variety of sources. The balance of the scoring has been nice.

“I’m very happy with the play of my center back Connor Boekel,” he added. “I think he has been a difference-maker for us. We are playing with three in the back, which is a massive change from our identity, but we feel like Connor has been good enough to lock it down by himself. We are a very young team; only seven seniors out of a roster of 26, so I’m happy with where we are at. We are getting into the league schedule and rainouts are going to get nutty. We have eight games in the next twenty days, which includes Somers, JJCR and Yorktown twice. Not easy as they are intense games. I’d like to see us really get better in our connections in the midfield and think we are a bit slow in transition and we need to improve there. But, overall, pretty happy at the turn.”

HORACE GREELEY had six different scorers in  6-0 rout of Lincoln, including Matthew Fioretti, Matthew Rodriguez, Jack Muns, Jesse LaRosa, Luke Hollock and Ryeder Goodman.

Diego Velasco made four saves for the Quakers (4-5-1)

Class AA CARMEL posted its biggest win of the season, a 3-2 triumph of state-ranked (No.15) Class AAA RCK when Ram Alex Kozlowicz (2G) and Drew Ford found the back of the net. Jefferson Portillo and Neel Walia each had an assist while G Patrick Schoelig made eight saves  between the pipes. The win has to provide the Rams with a ton of confidence as we turn toward the second half of the season.

“Most of our games have been close and the losses have been decided by one or two goals,” Carmel Coach Vasiliy Shevelchinsky said. “When the match is that tight a simple error and mental mistakes can be the difference maker. Class AA is loaded with talented teams that can capitalize at any point. We need to make sure as a team we are really comfortable in what each player’s role is and just doing their job; tactically remaining well organized. Lastly, the remaining players need to stay as healthy as possible down the stretch.”

Peekskill recovered from the Lakeland loss to score a 5-2 win over BREWSTER, the Red Devils (4-5) overtaking the Bears (1-6) behind a 3-1 second half edge. Umaru Conteh scored twice for the Red Devils while Randy Tapia (off a rebound), Maddox Lozada and Ariel Tenesaca tacked on additional goals to offset a pair of goals from Brewster’s Carlos Coronado.

Class B BRIARCLIFF hasn’t skipped a beat this season, rolling out a perfect 8-0 mark, (5-0 in league) while securing the No.1 rank in the NYS Class B poll. Coach Brandon Beck’s reigning Section 1 champion Bears are indeed the team to beat, but Keio checks in at No.14 and Rye Neck at No.19 and unranked Irvington is lurking in the weeds, so, yeah, Class B remains a dogfight and should be a whale of a tournament.

The Bears whooped Hastings, 5-1, behind five different goal scorers, including Sebastian Lai, Ethan Anisman, Emilio Abud Chalita, Miles Prosperino and Andrew Stone. Theo Molinoff set up a pair of those tallies.

Briarcliff jumped on board early, scoring two goals in the first eight minutes, one from Lai and the other from Anisman before Abud Chalita scored another to close out the first half.

WESTLAKE chalked up a pair of wins over Blind Brook (2-0) and VALHALLA (2-1 in OT) as scalding Thomas Lyden scored all four goals for the Wildcats (5-5). Valhalla’s Matthew Del Gatto netted the lone goal for the Vikings (4-6).

Valhalla opened the week with a 4-0 win over Putnam Valley. Del Gatto (from Ian Silvero),

Julian Amorosa (from Luka Pandzic), Del Gatto again (from Brayan Medina) and Medina (from Silvero) all found the score sheet and freshman G Jacob Bricker had six saves for the shutout, his first.

PLEASANTVILLE’s Erik Nanaj scored from Oliver Giebelhaus in the Panthers’ (4-4) 1-nill win over Rye Neck.

PUTNAM VALLEY (3-7) shut out Pawling, 1-0, on the strength of an Edward Pimental goal from Escuar Ordonez.

CROTON-HARMON’s 2-0 win over North Salem saw Tiger Marcos Goni place a pair between the pipes. Liam Stapleton added an assist and Cole Cross (5 saves) got the shutout for the 4-3 Tigers.

Class C HALDANE’s Clem Grossman and Matt Nachamkin each scored in a 2-0 win over North Salem and Blue Devil G Ronan Kiter had five saves for the clean sheet as they improved to 5-3 with a couple of big tests forthcoming (Croton, Blind Brook, Panas).

Class AAA WHITE PLAINS dropped FOX LANE behind the solo tallies of Fran Giglio Jorge Ordonez off assists fromAndres Arce and Jason Sanchez. The Tigers are a work in progress but they did limit the looks at G Albert Mendez, who made three saves for the shutout.

“We are still searching for a consistent group of starters,” White Plains Coach Mike Lambert admitted. “Two sophomores have cracked the starting 11 and seem to be beneficial to our midfield and possession.”

The coach admitted that finishing out games has been an issue and had a message for his club.

“Having three games with 2-0 leads in the final 20 minutes and only one turned out to be a win (loss and draw the other two), we need to mentally stay focused for a full 80 and I feel that is improving, but we have a long way to go. We had two games where we didn’t show up for the first half, which is a major concern, but with no wiggle room with the final matches our back is against the wall. We will see if our seniors are ready to take over this team. If not, our youngsters are ready to drive this ship.”

That ship will likely be steered toward state-ranked (No.2) North Rockland and/or No.5 Arlington as the postseason draws near.

The Tigers (4-5-2) also lost to Mamroneck Saturday, 3-0. Not the outcome the Tigers were hoping for against the perennial power.

“Plenty of good attacking soccer from our boys,” Lambert said, “but two posts and some timely saves kept us off the scoreboard. We’ve got a run of league games to close out the regular season. Our time is coming.”

In closing, on Monday, Oct. 29th the 9th Annual Section I vs. Section IX Challenge will commence at Lakeland High with a slew of juicy matchups, including: 9am Mamaroneck vs. Monroe Woodbury; 11am Bronxville vs. Spackenkill; 1pm Byram Hills vs. Cornwall; 3pm defending NYS champion Scarsdale vs. Goshen; 5pm John Jay EF vs. Newburgh FA and a 7pm nightcap featuring Lakeland vs. Section 9’s reigning champ Beacon. Quite the Columbus Day card for the soccer fanatics among us.