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Mostly Cloudy Calhoun kicks way to finals
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Calhoun's Daniel D'Ottone, right, scored twice during regulation as well as on his penalty kick in the team's Class AA semifinal win over Farmingdale.
Jeff Wilson/Herald
Regulation and a pair of 15-minute overtimes weren't enough to decide whether No. 2 Farmingdale or No. 3 Calhoun would emerge from the semifinal round of the Nassau Class AA boys' soccer playoffs last Friday night at Adelphi.
But after Colts' senior goalkeeper James Rehab made a diving stop of the Dalers fourth shooter in penalty kicks, the outcome became clear: Calhoun (9-4-1) advanced to its first county championship game since 2002, converting three of four penalty kicks after the two teams battled to a 3-3 tie in 110 minutes of regulation and overtime play.
Rehab's final save made junior Brian Grambo's score in the fourth round stand up as the game-winner. Calhoun's first two shooters, senior forward Daniel D'Ottone and senior sweeper Doug Cohen also scored leading the Colts into the title game against top-seeded Hicksville which took place on Wednesday afternoon, after press time.
"It's the most exciting game I've been involved in in a long time," Colts coach Jim Cantley said of the back-and-forth battle with Farmingdale.
All of the scoring during regulation took place during the second half, as the teams combined for six goals. Grambo and D'Ottone gave the Colts a 2-0 lead, but Farmingdale battled back to even the score. D'Ottone, perhaps Calhoun's hottest offensive player down the stretch, broke the tie, but Farmingdale knotted it one more time on a penalty kick to force overtime.
"D'Ottone has been stepping up lately," Cantley said. "He scored a lot of goals towards the end of the season."
Fatigue and cramping took their toll, to the point that one of Calhoun's top scorers, senior center midfielder Michael Guerra, who had two assists in the game, wasn't even among the five selected penalty kick shooters. "We went to the bench in the second half a lot more when guys were getting physically tired," Cantley said, later adding, "Half our team was cramping up. We definitely have to make sure we're hydrated [against Hicksville]."
No player may have taken more of a pounding than Rehab, who entered the game with a sprained thumb and almost no choice but to play the entire game, because his backup was battling the flu. Yet despite a few close calls on collisions, Rehab made sure the Colts didn't have to figure out a Plan B in net. "A couple of times he was laid out on collisions," Cantley said. "He's a great goalkeeper and very aggressive coming out of the box. He played great the whole game."
Once the Colts had opened up the early lead, they made one lineup change, moving leading scorer Corey Werbelow to defense, where his physical strength and ability to win balls in the air pays big dividends. "He wins a lot of headers and is very strong in the air," Cantley said.
Hicksville and Calhoun split their season series with each team recording a shutout. Down three starters in the first meeting, the Colts lost a 6-0 decision on Sept. 26. In the rematch, Calhoun won 3-0.
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