LWA gives fans a Halloween treat

The trick was fielding a competitive, winning team after losing eight starters from the previous year’s team, but the Lawrence Woodmere Academy (LWA) boys’ soccer squad did more than that finishing with a 10-2 record, earning the top-seed and winning the Private Schools Athletic Association championship with a 3-2 victory over the Avenues School of New York City on Halloween.
“It’s really a tribute to these guys,” said head coach Jeff Weiss about his team that was buoyed by the play and leadership of several seniors, especially scorer Gerardo Araujo, defender Max Frankel and goalie Chris Pierre-Louis, who had eight saves in the title game. Araujo scored two first half goals, including a bullet of a shot that whizzed past Avenues’ defense from about 30-feet out that put LWA up 2-0 at about the 25-minute mark.
LWA defeated No. 4 Staten Island Academy by the identical score in a PSAA semifinal on Oct. 28 (Senior Juwan Goodridge scored the winning goal with four minutes remaining in regulation.). No. 3 Avenues downed No. 2 Grace Day School in the other semifinal on that Tuesday. The final was originally scheduled for Oct. 30 at Portledge but due to traffic Avenues arrived late and the game was rescheduled for last Friday.
Weiss said moving the game to the next day had no impact, but Araujo said that after waiting for nearly two hours his team was getting weary. “It was a good thing it was postponed,” said Araujo, who collected most valuable player honors for his tournament play. “We were ready to play but after waiting there we were getting tired.”
The Tigers had no problem revving up for the championship game as they dominated play throughout the first half and played tight defense. Avenues cut the deficit to 2-1, but junior Nathan Cupidore gave LWA a two-goal again lead with a score off a header from freshman Shakeed Yosef.