Baldwin alive after topping MacArthur
Winless in four straight against Nassau Conference AA-1 rivals, Baldwin’s boys’ soccer team entered the final four games of the regular season with little margin for error.
One down, three to go.
The Bruins earned their first victory in three weeks Oct. 9, taking down injury plagued MacArthur, 3-1, behind a pair of goals from Nathaniel Hernandez and one from Erick Ramos. Matt Kobrin scored his team-leading sixth goal of the year for the Generals, who are out of playoff contention.
“Nathaniel is a senior and hasn’t had the kind of season he wanted, but he never stopped working and today in school when I saw him in the hallway I told him I wanted two goals today,” Baldwin coach Chris Soupios said after the game. “He knew I wasn’t kidding and he delivered. It’s a big moment for him.”
Both of Hernandez’s goals came in the second half. Ramos opened the scoring in the 11th minute with a right-footed blast and Kobrin answered for MacArthur (1-7-3 in AA-1) with a similar shot 12 minutes later.
“We’ve literally had some bad breaks this year,” Generals coach Andy Atkins said. “We were young to start and had Trevor Rizzo and Tristan Magnozzi both suffer bad injuries in the first East Meadow game [Sept. 9] and Liam Dunleavy went down in the second East Meadow game [Sept. 27].
“We’ve had some young guys come up and step up, but it’s a very strong conference and we just haven’t been able to finish and score enough,” he added.
Baldwin (3-4-4) limited MacArthur’s scoring chances in the second half behind a revamped defense consisting of Matt Alexandre, Max Ascencio-Cueva, Toni Lopez-Aguilar and Justin Victor.
“It’s now or never time,” Soupios said. “Losing to Jericho last week put us in a situation we didn’t want to be in. Now we have to battle to get into the playoffs. We have to be over .500 in the last three games.”
Kobrin, a sophomore, has been a standout at sweeper and offensively on set pieces for the Generals, Atkins noted, with Dunleavy (stopper), Zach Draguca (goalkeeper), Derek Acosta, Vin Silvestri and Nick Nemeth also providing strong contributions.
Ramos has been Baldwin’s top player this fall, Soupios said. Ramos assisted on Allan Paredes’ game-winner Sept. 18 when the Bruins defeated MacArthur at home, 2-1. “Erick does everything asked of him and we move him all over the field,” the coach noted. “He’s hard-nosed.”
The Bruins had a four-game unbeaten streak between Sept. 13 and 26 before two recent hiccups. Devonte Young scored both of their goals in a 2-2 draw with Mepham, and also the lone goal in a shutout win over East Meadow that saw keeper Brandon Torres make 6 saves.
“Ultimately it’s been about putting together 80 minutes,” Soupios said. “We’ve allowed some early goals and some late goals. Honestly, I wasn’t thrilled with our first half today but we played at another level in the second half.”
