Thursday, December 12, 2024
Prior to last year, Lawrence had never competed in a boys’ soccer county championship.
The Golden Tornadoes made it back-to-back trips on Sunday, but suffered a second consecutive defeat, falling to Floral Park, 2-0, in the Nassau Class A final at Farmingdale State College.
It was a heartbreaking defeat, especially for a group of seniors who came agonizingly close to the school’s first title. And coach Gerard Legasse attempted in vain to console his team in the locker room afterward.
“Their passion is second to none and unfortunately we just didn’t have it tonight,” Legasse said. “I told them to hold their heads up. I’m so proud of the effort, day in and day out. It just wasn’t our day today.”
The game was a rematch of last year’s semifinal, when the Golden Tornadoes upset top-seeded and undefeated Floral Park.
This time the third-seeded Knights earned a measure of revenge and advance to compete in the Long Island Class A final against either John Glenn or Kings Park at Farmingdale State College Nov. 8 at 8:30 pm.
After a scoreless first half, Floral Park (13-3-1) struck twice in a four-minute span early in the second half on goals by Ned Devine and Michael Donovan to take control of the match.
Fourth-seeded Lawrence (13-4-2) had chances to pull back, but Floral Park goalkeeper denied Jeremy Cruz, who was played behind the Knights’ defense. Cruz also put a point-blank shot over the crossbar and Ben Perez headed the ball off the crossbar.
“We had a lot of chances to score,” Legasse said. “We just couldn’t put it in the back of the net.”
To reach a second straight county final, Lawrence had to knock off the top-seeded team in the semifinals for a second consecutive year. In their way was Mineola, the defending county champions who knocked off the Golden Tornadoes in last year’s Nassau Class A final.
Lawrence emerged victorious thanks to Perez’s powerful back-post header off Brandon Moran-Flores’ corner kick in the 23rd minute. It was the senior center back’s fourth goal of the year.
The breakthrough goal came moments after the Mustangs nearly broke the scoreless stalemate, but Gabriel Rosales got a touch on a cross in the box. The rebound fell to Leonel Carillo, who put his shot off the post. It darted out to Frank Ramos, who put a shot on frame only for Alex Samayoa to make a diving clearance.
“We played a very good, but not perfect semifinal match,” Legasse said. “The focus was to set the tone the first 15-20 minutes of the game, which we did very well. We had Mineola on their heels and showed that we wanted it more. Our tactics worked in our favor and at the end of the day, we were the better team and the result proved that.”
