Oceanside's positive run ends

Despite a heartbreaking loss in its first-round playoff game, Oceanside boys’ soccer made huge strides this season and have appeared to put its recent struggles in the rearview mirror.

After a winless 2017 campaign, the Sailors went 3-3-6 this season and earned the No. 9 seed in the Nassau County Class AA playoffs. Oceanside allowed just 10 goals in 2018 and kept its opponent off the scoreboard four times. It was a far cry from last season, where the Sailors were outscored 24-3 and allowed at least two goals in eight of the 10 games.

Oceanside visited eighth-seeded Port Washington in the playoffs on Oct. 17 and lost 1-0 on a goal in the 56th minute of play. The Sailors matched the Vikings’ attack from the outset and out-possessed them in the first half while failing to capitalize on two decent scoring chances.

Following the goal, Oceanside again swarmed around the Port Washington net, but two crossing passes from the outside were just out of the reach of the intended target and the Vikings were able to survive.

“Heartbreaking is probably the best way to say it because we were there, we were in it,” second-year coach Patrick Turk said. “We could have tied it and maybe even snuck one in to get ahead, but it didn’t go that way.”

That game proved to be a microcosm of the Sailors’ season, keeping the opposition’s offense to a minimum while struggling to put the ball into the net offensively. The only game where Oceanside allowed more than one goal was in a 3-0 loss at Massapequa on Oct. 4. Its own offense had seven scoreless outings and two more one-goal efforts.

“That’s exactly how a lot of our games went this season,” Turk said. “It’s the nature of the sport too. Usually it’s a one-goal difference, 1-0, 2-1, whatever it is. In this conference, there are no slouches.”

Oceanside was highly competitive throughout the season, especially against the top-tier teams in Conference AA-1. The Sailors tied Farmingdale (5-4-3) twice while keeping its top player, Jhonatan Valbuena, off the scoresheet and beat Freeport (4-4-3) for Turk’s first varsity coaching win on Sept. 20 before edging defending Class AA champs Uniondale 2-1 two days later.

But Turk realized that this year would be different during the season opener, a 1-1 tie against Syosset, the team that advanced to the county final in 2017 and would go on to finish 9-3-3 this year.

“I knew Syosset was going to be a favorite this year,” he said. “We were able to roll with them right from the beginning. We would have [had] the victory if not for an unlucky call. [But overall], we were pretty happy about that.”

Syosset will lose 10 graduating seniors next year, including five starters. But junior Austin Ortiz is expected to return after leading the team with four goals this year and Turk is also looking forward to the continued growth of defensive stalwarts Matthew Meagher and Christopher Seychell.