Amherst, Sweet Home, South shut out in prequarters
Boys soccer
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Sweet Home's Phil Stewart gives Lancaster's Kevin Av a hit to the head while digging for the ball during the Panthers' 2-0 Section VI Class AA prequarterfinal road loss last Wednesday. Photo by Joe Eberle Purchase color photos at www.BeeNews.com

The seasons of the Williamsville South, Amherst Central and Sweet Home boys soccer teams ended earlier than they would have liked.

All three teams' seasons ended with road losses by shutouts in the Section VI tournament last Wednesday.

In Class A, Amherst, seeded twelfth, fell at fifth-seed Grover Cleveland, 1-0 and fifteen-seed Williamsville South lost 4-0 at second-seed Iroquois. In Class AA, ninth-seed Sweet Home lost 2-0 at eighth-seed Lancaster.

Amherst Central

Tigers coach Bobby DiNunzio isn't sure why his team came out flat against Grover Cleveland but he has his ideas.

"Grover Cleveland has a lot of kids who have good footwork with the ball, it was almost like street ball," said DiNunzio. "I told them how it would be but I think it caught them off guard."

DiNunzio said his team was fortunate to escape the first half with a 0-0 tie.

"It seemed like they had the ball in our end at least 60 to 70 percent of the time," said DiNunzio. "We came out well in the first 15 minutes of the second half. One of our shots went wide and another was saved by their goalie."

The Presidents' Ndorbor Dower scored on a low shot to the far post in the second half.

Amherst's Sean Mullane volleyed a shot wide late in the game.

"We didn't play our best," said DiNunzio. "It was a bad way to lose."

Amherst goalie Joe Pittari made six saves.

The Tigers finished 4-4-4 in ECIC Division III, 8-5-4 overall. Nine seniors, including five starters, defenders Sam Suggs and Alex Portin, midfielder Kurt Ebsary, and forwards Bridger Langfur and Ben Gaughan, graduate. Langfur led Amherst with 12 points (five goals, two assists). DiNunzio called Portin the quarterback of the team and lauded his leadership.

Amherst scored only 22 goals as a team but only gave up 17. Ebsary and Pittari combined for 70 saves out of 150 shots.

"I didn't know what to expect at the beginning of the season," said DiNunzio. "We have a lot of juniors who got a lot of time so we can build on that for next year."

Portin, William O'Neil-White and Jack Barrick were named to the ECIC III first team. Ebsary, Langfur, Suggs and Gaughan earned third team honors.

Sweet Home

The story of the Panthers' game was its inability to bury its scoring opportunities.

"They had two or three chances and finished twice, and we had three or four set plays in the second half that we ran perfectly and couldn't score," said Sweet Home coach Scott Martin.

Already up 1-0, Lancaster's Jake Rinow put the game away for the Redskins with a nice goal into the corner of the Sweet Home net from 25 yards away.

Senior goalie Tim Arnold made five saves for the Panthers, which finished 4-15.

"It's never fun to lose but the group came a long way," said Martin. "In the last two to three weeks, we were competing in most games. The effort was there. The good news is we have enough young guys excited about turning the team's record around next year."

Martin loses eight players to graduation, including midfielder Craig Stallard, and defenders Rich Fedele and Pat Luvender. Senior midfielder Mamane Hamza had three goals.

Junior Nick Cavalieri led the team in nine goals. Cavalieri was named to the All-ECIC Division II second team; freshman Connor Orrico made the third team. Sophomore Johnathan Reeb, who was stopped on a breakaway against Lancaster in the second half, had four goals.

Williamsville South South and Iroquois were scoreless at halftime, largely because of Billies sophomore goaltender Steve Crawford.

"He made several outstanding saves," said South coach Peter Sugg. "They outplayed us badly in the first half. We had problems controlling their speed."

Crawford continued his great play in the second half, stopping a penalty shot by Eric Steinmetz 16.5 minutes in but Steinmetz put in his own rebound to break the scoreless tie.

"I think they were getting frustrated because once they scored, they started to take it to us," said Sugg.

Dan Razzolini made it 2-0 Iroquois 10 minutes later. Steinmetz added two goals in the last minute (39 and 39:30 mark).

Crawford finished with 15 saves. Sugg said on several occasions in the game, he could hear the Iroquois bench saying "that save was sick."

"He was what we needed to be for us to have a chance but we could never get it going offensively," said Sugg.

Sugg loses only four seniors - forwards Sam Alt, Trevor Lawler, James Chudy and Brian Nam - but returns sophomore forward Zach Schwartz, Crawford in goal, and the entire defense -- juniors R.J. Grampp, Chris Toone, Nick Hoffman and Brian Van ee.

"The future looks good," said Sugg. "We have a lot of kids coming up who should help next year."

South finishes 4-9-5.

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com