Mahopac’s Flair for Dramatic Continues in Win over Carmel; Tested Lakeland Prepped to Defend Title; Sailors Seek 1st League Title in 12 Years
You’d have to say Joe Iraola and the MAHOPAC Indians (12-3-1) have a flair for the dramatic. The Class AA Indians, two years removed from an impressive semifinal run in 2010, are looking like a potential top four-five seed in the upcoming sectional tournament after defeating Carmel and tying John Jay EF last week. Iraola scored with one second left to take out Carmel and he scored once in the Jay game, where Ryan Conlin also scored and David Kalaj had an assist.
“If I didn’t live through some games this season and see them with my own eyes, I probably wouldn’t believe that they happened,” Mahopac Coach Chris Emery said. “Our eight seniors — Joseph Iraola, David Kalaj, Justin Fleischer, Kieran Donnelly, Danny Feighery, Danny Katz, Tommy Walsh and Ryan Byrnes — have done a fantastic job of leading the team this season and are a big reason we are successful. Unfortunately, we’re back to starting games slowly. For the second consecutive game, we did not play a good first half.”
That was against Carmel; the Indians came out quick against Jay, scoring a pair of first-half goals while establishing some confidence against a quality club. In Mahopac’s 1-0 overtime win over host John Jay earlier in the week, Iraola scored off a free kick with 23 seconds remaining in the second overtime, giving him his third golden goal of the season. Sophomore Mike Bernardi had five saves in the shutout.
The Indians are living with the mantra: “Why Not Us”, and they believe they can do some damage in the post season. “We think we can, and that’s our slogan and we believe in it,” said Iraola, the sniper with 16 goals on the year. “When we play our best we are tough team to beat and we really know how to finish out games.”
In YORKTOWN’s 4-1 win over Panas Luk “Shtuk” Saljanin blew up, hitting a hat trick for the Huskers, who could not keep it going in a 1-0 loss to LAKELAND Saturday. Hornet senior Patryk Seweryn scored off a pass from middie Gonzalo Prando midway through the second half and the Hornets scratched out the win. Reggis Mora (four) and CJ Mackay made seven saves to preserve the shutout. Jacob Braham had nine saves for the Huskers.
“We always feel like the Route 132 battle will be a one goal game,” Lakeland boss Tim Hourahan said.
Lakeland has been seriously hamstrung by injuries and have been forced to play it a little closer to the vest of late. With three ACL tears and a broken foot to another player, four players are done for the year. The Hornets were also without their best 1-on-1 defender, Johnny Pinto, who was hurt in the Arlington game and expects to get back for sectionals.
“It’s crazy how this season has played out in terms of injuries,” Hourahan said. “We’ve had more this fall than in my last seven years combined. But I was so proud of our seniors on senior night. CJ Mackay got his first career start in goal and added 4 saves to the shutout.
“And talk about seniors coming through,” he added. “That was one of our prettiest goals of the season when Gonzalo played a ball to Patryk, who hit a perfect one-time volley into the back of the bet. That was senior leadership coming through on senior night at Lakeland… something special.”
Lakeland went on the road Monday at state-ranked (No.12) Beacon (12-4) and improved to 10-5 with a 2-1 win over the Bulldogs. Hornets need to be shown some love in the state polls; perhaps win over Class AA Mamaroneck (11-4) on Tuesday will do so.
“We feel like we have been tested all season long and with all the injuries our lack of depth has shown at times, but we will be prepared and ready for the first round of sectionals in defense of our title.”
SOMERS (7-5-1) beat Ketcham 2-0 on goals from Ian Warren and Anthony DiMauro, and the Tuskers are looking like they are going to have to get it done on the road in the playoffs as a likely 9-11 seed and word is they may be without key defender Xavier Lloyd.
HEN HUD midfielder Steven Pinski scored his 20th goal of the season in a 4-0 win over Putnam Valley last Wednesday, part of his hat trick against the Tigers. Pinksi, who scored his 21st in a 3-0 win on Monday over Arlington B, has morphed into one of the top goal scorers in the section, and hopes to lead the upstart Sailors (11-3) to their first league title in 12 years with a win over Poughkeepsie later this week, according to A.D. Tom Baker.
The sectional tournament will begin this Friday at the home of the higher seed, which will be announced Wednesday.
day. Sailor Hunter Brendt scored in the first overtime to break the tie. Lindsey Luposello and Megan Curtis followed with goals.
Ray has 33 years experience covering and photographing local sports in Westchester and Putnam counties, including everything from Little League/Travel Baseball to varsity high school prep sports and collegiate coverage. He has been a sports editor at Examiner Media since its inception in 2007.
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