Long Beach topped in semis

The last time Long Beach reached the semifinal round of the Nassau boys’ soccer playoffs, coach Leo Palacio joked, was before he was born.

Not quite, but Palacio was trying to convey the great accomplishments made by the Marines when their breakthrough 2017 campaign came to a close. They won a conference championship and dominated Westbury in a quarterfinal playoff matchup before falling short, 2-0, against top-seeded Syosset in the semis on Oct. 27 at Hofstra.

“It’s a season these guys will remember for the rest of their lives,” said Palacio, who starred for the Marines in his high school playing days and has been a member of the coaching staff for 30 years. “We were outplayed by a great Syosset team, but we have to look back at all the things we hadn’t done in a very long time,” he added. “It’s the first time we’re in the semifinals in 24 years and we hadn’t won the conference in more than 10 years.”

Syosset struck once in each half. Mike Andre banged home a rebound in the 21st minute and senior Mike Stanco netted the Braves some breathing room 1:17 into the second half as they advanced to face Uniondale for the title.

No. 4 Long Beach hadn’t surrendered the opening goal often in its 10-win season, and Palacio thought it was “huge” when Syosset got the jump midway through the first half. Marc Reilly, who along with fellow senior Scott Gernhardt had a tremendous season tending goal for the Marines, made a dynamic diving save off Syosset leading scorer C.J. Emmerich before Andre beat defenders to the rebound.

“That first goal is always huge, but even more so in the playoffs,” Palacio said. “It’s important for confidence and everything else.”

Falling behind by two put Long Beach in unchartered territory in 2017 and though its scoring chances were few and far between, a diving save by Syosset’s Dylan Gefter less than three minutes after Stanco’s goal kept the Marines from gaining any momentum.

“They were the better team tonight,” Palacio told his players afterwards. “If we played them tomorrow, maybe we’d be the better team. Be proud of everything we accomplished.”

Long Beach, which totaled only four wins from 2013-16, earned a first-round playoff bye and had to wait an extra day to host No. 5 Westbury in the quarterfinals due to poor weather conditions on Oct. 24. With a large crowd behind them, the Marines scored early and never looked back on the way to a convincing 4-0 victory. Junior Dillon Woods scored twice, giving him 17 on the year, and Reilly and Gernhardt combined for 11 saves in the shutout. Senior Sean Malone and sophomore Keri Saravia also scored.

“We really played a great game,” Palacio said. “We scored some beautiful goals and shut down a team that could score.

“We’re still a young team,” he added. “We’ll miss the seniors but we have a lot of juniors and sophomores who were a big part of this.”