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Mostly Cloudy Jets grounded by Sailors
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Oceanside's Sam Kirschenbaum avoids a sliding Anthony Posillico of East Meadow during last Friday's Nassau Class AA first-round playoff game.
Jeff Wilson/Herald
Junior forward Nick Iadevio made the most of his return to the soccer field last Friday night, igniting an Oceanside offense that endured four straight shutouts during the regular season and managed just four multi-goal games against Conference AA-I foes.
In action for the first time in about six weeks, Iadevio scored twice in a 35-second span early in the first half to lead the sixth-seeded Sailors to a 2-0 victory over No. 11 East Meadow in a Nassau Class AA first-round playoff game. They advanced to meet No. 3 Calhoun in the quarterfinals, with a spot in Friday’s semifinals at Adelphi at 7:30 p.m. going to the winner.
“It’s great to come back and help us win,” said Iadevio, who had a strong start to the season with three goals in two games in the Mustang Cup Tournament in Mineola. “We go the two early goals and our defense did a great job shutting them down.”
His first goal came at 4:42 following one of senior Joe Mayer’s patented throw-ins. Mayer sent the ball into the box and it pinballed to Iadevio, who quickly settled it before ripping a left-footed shot past East Meadow junior goalkeeper Hector Guerrero. A collision between Guerrero and Luciano Arra at the top of the box led to the second goal, which came at 5:17. The ball caromed toward the goalmouth, where Jets defender Dom Fragiorgi made a valiant effort but couldn’t stop
Iadevio’s shot.
“Scoring has been a glaring weakness of ours all year,” Oceanside coach Chuck Phelan said. “Nick is someone we can look to for goals and gives everyone else a little more confidence. He’s hardly played and he’s scored five times.”
East Meadow, probably the biggest surprise of any of the 12 playoff participants in Class AA, featured the county’s leading goal-scoring tandem in senior Alex Reminick (13) and junior Anthony Posillico (12) but mustered only three shots on Oceanside junior goalkeeper Billy Cohen. “I thought we played well, but not well enough to win,” Jets coach Kevin Regan said. “I don’t know how many people expected us to be a playoff team. I’m happy with what we accomplished. We had a lot of must-win games down the stretch and we won them all.”
Guerrero posted shutouts in three of the last four regular-season games as East Meadow went 9-4 in Conference AA-II. He was tested throughout the second half as the Sailors stayed aggressive, and he made nine saves including a leaping effort to deny Metri Abdul-Karim with 35 minutes remaining. “We didn’t want to change anything after the two goals,” Phelan said. “We wanted to keep the pressure on.”
The Jets could sustain only mild pressure. Oceanside’s defense, led by Mayer, senior Vinny Aniano, sophomore Casey Densing and freshman Mike Kaniatyn, certainly brought it’s ‘A’ game. “Our defense has been our rock,” Phelan said.
And the offense rediscovered its roll.
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