South Side motivated to go far

On the heels of a successful 2023 regular season that didn’t carry over into the postseason, South Side boys’ soccer is looking to extend its 2024 campaign into November.

The Cyclones entered the Class AA playoffs as the No. 3 seed with only two losses before getting upset by Long Beach in the quarterfinals at home, 3-0. It marked the second time in three seasons that South Side’s championship hopes were dashed early in the playoffs by the Marines.

“All of us are fueled by that, for sure,” said fourth year South Side coach Patrick Corvetti. “We had a really good summer of training and practicing.”

South Side returns around half of last year's starting lineup including offensive weapons Mike Benfanti, Luca Tarulli, Jack Darlington and Connor Fernandez. Corvetti said any of the four are capable of stepping up as the main scorers in any given game.

Benfanti delivered South Side’s first goal of the new season in a 1-0 win at Hewlett on Sept. 11 from an assist by John Kufta off a long throw-in from Christian Hackett.

The defense is anchored by senior captain TJ Brull, who is the lone returning starter from last year’s team that produced five clean sheets. The backline, which has featured some early season injuries, is also getting contributions from seniors John Kufta and Michael Baum, sophomore Damien D’antonio and Hackett.

Junior Gavin McDaid took the reins as starting goalie this season and recorded a shutout in the Hewlett win with three saves. Junior Caden Belling started the opening match due to a wrist injury to McDaid and registered three saves in a 1-0 loss at Manhasset on Septy. 6.

South Side is in a challenging conference in AA-III which features Garden City, Manhasset, Division, Hewlett, Bellmore JFK, Roslyn and Elmont. The Cyclones began the season with defending county champion Manhasset and dominated the match, according to Corvetti, but for surrendering a second half penalty kick goal.

“All top four seeds that were in the playoffs last year are in my conference so it is a competitive league,” Corvetti said. “We will be in the mix and I think we can make a deep run.”

The Cyclones (2-2) ended last week with a convincing 7-0 win against Division under the lights at Darcy Field that featured two goals apiece from Tarulli and Michael Forker along with three assists by Darlington. Luca Suarez, Declan O'Toole and Fernandez also had goals in the blowout victory in which South Side led 3-0 at halftime before pouring it on in the second half.

South Side wll visit Bellmore JFK on Wednesday before hosting Manhasset on Sept. 26 in a rematch of the season-opening defeat at 5 p.m. The Cyclones will then travel to Garden City on Sept. 28 and host Hewlett on Oct. 1 at 5 p.m.

“It is a great group of guys and they're working their butts off,” Corvetti said. “There was a lot of positivity coming into the season.”