66.0°,
Fair Cyclones prevail in overtime
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Kathy Leistner/Herald
South Side's Mark Romanowski, right, who scored in OT, controls the ball in front of Roslyn's Michael Shenfeld during last Sunday's semifinal at Mitchel Athletic Complex.
Kathy Leistner/Herald
For a seventh straight game senior goalkeeper Paul Casazza made sure one goal was all it would take for South Side to prevail.
Casazza turned aside all 13 shots Roslyn sent his way and Mark Romanowski scored on a direct free kick 11:30 into overtime to give the second-seeded Cyclones a 1-0 victory last Sunday in a Nassau Class A boys’ soccer semifinal at Mitchel Athletic Complex.
Romanowski, a freshman, ripped a 15-yard shot to the right of a wall of Bulldogs that glanced off the outstretched arm of goalkeeper Adam Hoffman (four saves) and into the corner of the net. South Side (8-3-7), which beat New Hyde Park in overtime in the quarterfinals, advanced to face top seed Garden City in the championship game on Wednesday at noon at Adelphi.
“We have a lot of heart,” said Casazza, who hasn’t allowed a goal since the second half of a 2-2 tie at Garden City on Oct. 9. “We were outplayed in the second half today just like the New Hyde Park game, but we just didn’t give up.”
Romanowski, who leads the team in scoring with four goals and seven assists, had a brief discussion with Coach Fred Paul before taking the shot that brings the Cyclones one win from their first county title since 1999. “We run some different plays off directs,” Paul said. “Mark told me he wanted to take the shot and he did what he had to do with it.
“Forget about what grade he’s in,” Paul said. “He’s just a great varsity soccer player. I stopped looking at him as a freshman the first time I saw him play.”
Most of South Side’s best scoring chances in regulation came within the first 20 minutes of play when Dan Alles, Kevin Cook, Mike Pirozzi and Ben Tetelman controlled the midfield.
Roslyn, the No. 3 seed, outshot South Side by a 6-1 margin in the second half but couldn’t solve Casazza, who along with junior Devon Khosla began the team’s shutout streak Oct. 14 when they combined to blank Valley Stream South. Casazza’s best save in the semifinal came with 2:03 remaining in regulation when he dove to deny Matthew Sherr from close range.
“I can’t say enough about how big he’s been,” Paul said of Casazza, who has 39 saves in three playoff games and 132 stops on the year.
Working behind a defense led by senior Greg Cove and juniors Jeff Cohen, Alex Norwood and Jared Monfort, Casazza made 14 saves in the quarterfinal victory over No. 7 New Hyde Park at home on Nov. 14. Another young gun, sophomore Kevin Cook, was the offensive hero. He headed home the winning goal following a rebound off the crossbar 31 seconds into overtime.
“We’d rather win in regulation,” said Casazza, “but we’ll go as long as it takes.”
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