A step back for a team headed forward
Collapse leaves Riverhead in a jam
By Chuck Adams
It was not indicative of the way they have been playing this season.
Pete Huszagh knows how far his high school boys' soccer team has come this season, how much it has progressed. So when the Riverhead Blue Waves took a step backward in a 4-1 loss at West Babylon on Monday afternoon, it was the kind of loss that really frustrated the Riverhead coach.
The Blue Waves (4-5-1, 2-4-1 in Suffolk County League IV) trailed by a goal at the half. But early in the second half, the Eagles (7-2-1, 4-2-1) scored and then quickly scored again.
Riverhead, in Huszagh's words, "collapsed."
"This was just terrible," he said quietly. "We didn't play our game. We started strong, then it all went south on us. We stopped playing the ball on the ground. It got ugly. We got away from what we do well. Then we began to panic and our mood and chemistry fell apart."
After falling behind early, Riverhead tied the score 20 minutes into the half when Jose Villatoro took a through ball from Nery Paredes and put the ball inside the far right post. Huszagh called it, "a beautiful goal."
But late in the half, West Babylon regained the lead as the ball pinballed in front of the Riverhead net before finding its way into the goal. West Babylon opened the second half with two quick goals, and it all went wrong for the Blue Waves.
"Today was not our day," Huszagh said. "We had our chances to score, but we came up empty. The scoring chances are so limited, you have to be perfect. You can't waste those kind of opportunities."
Peter Marino (13 saves), who is regularly a midfielder, played brilliantly in goal for Riverhead.
"Pete stepped in and put the team before himself," Huszagh said. "He played goalie for two years on the J.V., but has really done well for us in the midfield this season."
Huszagh called his team's 4-2 home loss last Thursday to the Half Hollow Hills West Colts "the best Riverhead has ever played soccer."
Hills West (7-1-3, 6-1) led, 2-0, early in the second half, before the Blue Waves rallied to tie the score. Nick Contino scored from 12 yards out 10 minutes into the half, and Ryan Otano put in a header off a corner kick three minutes later to knot the score.
Riverhead, which had stunned Hills West by 2-1 in the league opener, had a pair of golden opportunities to take the lead. Contino's shot glanced off the crossbar. Jahvon Ballantyne's header appeared to go across the goal line, but was not ruled a goal. Huszagh was so sure it was a goal, he raised his hands in the air.
"It sure looked in," he said. "We just got unlucky."
Marcin Kasperski, Riverhead's goalkeeper, made five saves to keep his team in the game.
But with less than two minutes remaining, Hills West's Corey Javer scored to give his team the lead. They added an insurance goal by Stefan Carter.
"Riverhead soccer builds from short, quick passes on the ground," Huszagh said. "The ball is distributed to the flanks to spread the defense. It is control soccer. It is passing with a purpose. It is hustling on defense. It is challenging everything. It is possession soccer."
Riverhead, which has never reached the playoffs, needs three wins and a tie in the final four regular-season games to make it to the postseason.
"I told the team, 'You have a chance to make history,' " Huszagh said. "The irony is that in my senior year here in 1999, we needed to win our last four to make the playoffs. We won three in a row, but lost the last game. I hope history repeats itself and we make a run at it."
