Defense leads West Hempstead to playoffs

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Entering the 2015 boys’ soccer season, West Hempstead coach Chris Van Kovics was concerned about his team’s ability to find the back of the net, but felt his defense would keep the team in games. His foresight was pretty much spot on. 

The Rams scored just 12 goals in league play, but only yielded nine on their way to a 4-3-4 record in Nassau Conference ABC-III. With a 0-0 tie on the road against a solid Cold Spring Harbor team last Friday afternoon, West Hempstead locked up another trip to the Class A playoffs. The team has suffered overtime losses in the playoffs in each of the past two seasons.

“With a senior-laden defense, I expected that we would be able to do a good job of limiting opponent’s opportunities,” Van Kovics said. “The guys on the backline, along with our keeper, have performed real well. It’s a game of failure. You’re not going to get a lot of scoring opportunities, so, you have to keep the opponent from getting a lot of chances, and take care of opportunities when you get them.”

The team followed its blueprint in nearly every match. The Rams held Carle Place, Cold Spring Harbor, and Mineola, three of the conference’s top sides, off the scoreboard. In a scoreless tie with unbeaten Carle Place, the defense came up big, and junior keeper Eric Cunningham registered six saves. Cunningham had four shutouts in the regular season. 

While Cunningham has been excellent in net, the West Hempstead backline has a lot to do with keeping opponents in check. Senior sweeper Jason Criollo and senior stopper Steven DiMarco have lived up to their billing. Senior Ricardo Henriquez drew rave reviews from Van Kovics as well.

“We’re always playing against teams with more size and strength, but the defense really rose to the occasion,” Van Kovics said. “They mark and clear very well, and do a nice job making runs to move the ball up the field. They’ve been a huge reason for us being able to achieve what we have. They never stop working.”

Despite being double marked on many occasions, senior captain Jared Sills accounted for a good percentage of the team’s scoring. He found the net four times, and assisted on three other goals.  Everything runs through center midfielder Dayquan Crawley. The senior captain gets knocked around a lot, but more often than not he finds a way to persevere. Junior Ackeem Jackson led the team with five goals.

Van Kovics hopes the Rams can find a way to advance in the postseason. “We’ve had a couple heartbreaking losses to end the past two seasons,” he said. “The way we play, we’re capable of beating a lot of teams. Other than one disappointing loss, we pretty much did as I figured we would in the league. If we can just find ways to score, I think we can take that next step in the playoffs this year.”