For the fourth time in the past five years, Waldorf’s Varsity Boys Soccer Team traveled on Friday, Oct, 26 – just before Hurricane Sandy hit the region – to Locust Valley’s Portledge School, (a neutral site), in order to play in the IPPSAL Boys Soccer Championships. This year’s opponent was Lawrence Woodmere Academy (LWA) who split the regular season games with Waldorf, each earning a win and suffering a loss.
Waldorf started the game with the season’s trademark offensive surge – and with just a little more than six minutes into the game, junior tri-captain midfielder Peter Escribano neatly tucked the ball into the far post off a throw-in from senior tri-captain midfielder Orin Pearce. After five more shots that kept the LWA goalkeeper very busy, Pearce had another long throw-in that senior forward Marco Spitaliere fired into the near post for the 2-0 Waldorf lead. LWA started its own offensive rush and scored; cutting the Waldorf lead at the end of the first half to 2-1.
The second half saw LWA leading an all-out offense in order to score the equalizer. But Waldorf’s stonewall defense of senior Eric Tsai, juniors Sam Resnick and Ho Sub Kim, and sophomore Sheppard Somers, helped senior goalkeeper Max Novick turn away all attacks. With minutes remaining in the game, Coach LeSueur dropped back most of the team to defense and midfield in order to preserve the 2-1 victory – thus earning the team’s third IPPSAL championship title in four appearances.
Waldorf outshot their opponent 15-14, and Novick (again playing brilliantly) made 12 saves, to LWA’s seven saves. LWA led on corner kicks 2-3, but were whistled for 16 penalties and one yellow card. Waldorf had 13 penalties. Overall, Waldorf ended the season with 49 goals and a goal differential of +29, eight more goals than the next team, and +11 differential better than the next team.
“It was very gratifying to watch the senior corps of goalkeeper Novick; defenders Tsai, Chris Ogunfowora, and Greg Weiss; midfielders Pearce, tri-captain Caleb Yuan, Cody Bach, and Michael Wechsler; and forward Spitaliere walk off the field with the championship trophy held high,” said Coach LeSueur. “The team would also like to thank the entire Waldorf community for their very vocal support throughout the season, and especially at this championship game.”
