Carey eliminated on late goal

A questionable foul just outside the box in the final minute of regulation led to a picture-perfect restart goal by one of Nassau County’s top offensive threats, and the end of Carey’s season.

Senior Lucas Sauer headed in senior Steve Loaiza’s free kick with 20 seconds remaining to give No. 4 Plainedge a stunning 2-1 victory over the fifth-seeded Seahawks in a Nassau Class A boys’ soccer quarterfinal playoff matchup Oct. 25 at Plainedge Park. Sauer, who recorded 14 regular-season goals, also opened the scoring 22 minutes into the first half.

  “They’re free to restart without a whistle and made a nice play to beat us,” Carey coach Matt Princi said. “They caught us a little by surprise, because you figure they’d wait another 10 seconds to avoid any chance of a counter-attack.

“I’m not sure what the call was, so I really couldn’t argue,” he added. “The kids were upset. I’ll have to go back and look at the film to see if there was any contact. Either way, we can’t change it. It’s a difficult loss.”

Carey, which beat Plainedge, 4-1, in last year’s first round on the way to reaching the semifinals as the No. 15 seed, had the better of play, Princi said, but couldn’t finish in close with the exception of junior Steven Lopez’s tying goal with 5:29 left in the first half. The Red Devils advance to meet No. 1 Glen Cove in the semis.

“We had the ball inside their zone quite a bit, especially in the first half with the wind at our back,” Princi explained. “It just seemed like we were trying to make that one extra pass and not taking clear shots we had. We didn’t send enough shots towards the cage.”

Both goalkeepers — Plainedge senior Justin Lubitz and Carey senior Gianclaudio Arboleda — made six saves. The Seahawks knocked on the door throughout the first half, with seniors Nick Acquafredda and Vince Matozzo, and junior Corry Brinken spearheading the pressure. They forced six corner kicks and had Brinken, with his back to the net, dribble a shot from the back of his heel off the post.

 “We never clicked in the offensive third,” Princi said. “We didn’t put the ball on frame enough. I don’t know how the shot off the post didn’t go in. Corry was like our third guy to touch the ball inside the box during that flurry.”

Matozzo, who assisted on Lopez’s goal, led Carey (8-2-6 overall) in points on the year with seven goals and seven assists. Acquafredda, who earned a second straight All-County award, had a team-leading eight goals to go with five assists. Junior Andrew Higgins, who played every position except keeper, had five goals.

Higgins and seniors Carlos Llamosa (All-County) and Adam Fields led a strong defensive effort in the playoffs, which began with a 2-1 win over No. 13 Bethpage in the first round. Acquafredda and Brinken had first-half goals, and sophomore Ben Wettstein, filling in for Arboleda, totaled five saves.