Last Saturday’s Section II, Class A boys soccer quarterfinal between No. 7 Mohonasen and No. 2 Scotia-Glenville had all the elements for a classic game: high drama, bad weather and a back story involving the two coaches.
Oh, and a storybook ending featuring the lone sophomore on a senior-laden team.
Sophomore Gianluca Puorto’s grounder skipped past goaltender Scott DeBiase on the rain-soaked turf and tucked inside the left post to give Mohonasen a 2-1 overtime victory over Scotia-Glenville in Scotia.
I just thought I’d take a shot and see what happened, said Puorto.
What happened was Puorto’s shot made its way through traffic with a possible deflection off Trey Jasenski’s leg, and before DeBiase could reach it, the ball was in the back corner of the net and Mohonasen (11-8-1) was mobbing Puorto in front of the Mighty Warriors fans.
`In sloppy, windy conditions, if you put a shot on goal, good things can happen,` said Mohonasen coach Josh Gregg. `And in the Scotia goaltender’s defense, I think there were eight or nine defenders in the (penalty) box. I’m not sure he even saw it.`
`I asked Scott if he saw it the whole way, and he said he did,` said Scotia-Glenville coach Chris Bailey. `He read the first shot correctly, and then the deflection threw him.`
The game started with a bang when Scotia-Glenville’s Elliott Gordon scored less than one minute into the first half. Gordon stole the ball off a slow back pass from a Mohonasen defender to goaltender Joshua Gray and kicked it into the empty net.
`I think it was a case where we were caught sleeping and the Scotia guy kept going,` said Gregg.
The play exemplified the style of play Scotia-Glenville (11-5-0) employed against Mohonasen. The Tartans tried to catch the Mighty Warriors off guard with long passes that Gordon or Nate Crow could catch up to, and it nearly worked on several occasions. But, Gordon’s goal was the only time that the strategy paid off.
`It was definitely two contrasting styles of play,` said Gregg. `I wasn’t surprised that they came out with that style of attack because they knew we were a skill team, so they tried to disrupt our style of play.`
Mohonasen elected to stick with passing the ball around and creating scoring opportunities whenever possible. The Mighty Warriors had several opportunities to tie the game following Gordon’s goal before Stephen Coughlin struck a tough-angle shot past DeBiase midway through the first half.
`He just put in a tremendous amount of work this season and I’m happy he got rewarded for it (with a playoff goal),` Gregg said of Coughlin, who had scored only one goal during the regular season.
The drama increased after Coughlin’s goal. One minute later, a Scotia-Glenville player was sent off for a red card after fouling Jasenski near the end line. Despite being a man down, the Tartans kept applying pressure on every Mohonasen player possessing the ball and creating fast break opportunities.
`Prior to the red card, we were relying on a 4-4-2 formation (with two forwards, four midfielders and four defensemen),` said Bailey. `After they tied the game and we got the red card, we switched to a 4-4-1 formation where we only had one forward up front, and we went to man-marking Jasenski (instead of double-teaming him).`
`Scotia put in such an amazing work rate the entire game,` said Gregg. `Even with 10 men, they were still playing hard.`
It came as no surprise to Gregg that Scotia-Glenville kept playing hard. He knew Bailey would motivate his players because Gregg once played for Bailey at Schalmont.
`It was a tough way for him to lose with the work his team put in,` said Gregg.
`I was really proud of our guys’ effort. They couldn’t have played any better,` said Bailey.
As the weather worsened in the second half, the level of play on both sides remained high. Mohonasen created a golden scoring opportunity early on when Jasenski found Taylor Ralbovsky on the charge, but Scotia-Glenville’s defense deflected Ralbovsky’s shot. A short time later, Nick Alescio tried to put the Tartans ahead, but Gray stopped Alescio’s long shot.
Scotia-Glenville nearly took the lead late in the second half on another Mohonasen defensive miscue. Gray tried to clear the ball, but it struck Crow near the edge of the penalty box. But before Crow could gather the ball, it bounced right back to Gray to end the threat.
`He was so surprised that he didn’t have time to react and settle the ball for a shot,` said Bailey. `If he had settled it, he might have been able to toe it past Gray, and then he would have had an open net to shoot at.`
`We were absent for parts of that game,` said Gregg. `Mentally, our team wasn’t where it should have been.`
Crow’s near miss turned out to be Mohonasen’s wake up call. The Mighty Warriors had several quality shots on goal in the final three minutes of regulation and the first 15-minute sudden-victory overtime period, but those shots sailed over the crossbar.
Mohonasen kept the pressure on Scotia-Glenville’s defense in the second overtime period before Puorto’s shot sent the Mighty Warriors into Thursday’s semifinal against Gloversville.
`It’s huge for Mohonasen soccer ` absolutely huge,` said Gregg. `We haven’t been to the semifinals in years.`
If Mohonasen beats Gloversville Thursday, there is a chance it will meet its crosstown rivals from Schalmont in Saturday’s final at Colonie Central High School. Schalmont advanced to the semifinals with a 5-0 victory over Catholic Central last Saturday. The top-seeded Sabres meet Colonial Council foe Albany Academy Thursday in Queensbury.
`We’re just going to come out with a better effort (against Gloversville) than we did against Scotia,` said Gregg. `If we play with confidence, we can beat anybody.“