Massapequa Boys Soccer Eliminates Port Washington

After an intense yet scoreless first half, the Massapequa Chiefs boys soccer team kicked it into overdrive in the second to win their Nassau Class AA quarterfinal game against the Port Washington Vikings, 2-0, in Massapequa on Wednesday.

The win secured the third-ranked Chiefs a place in the semifinal game this Saturday against Great Neck South.

The first half saw the ball in Port Washington's side of the field more often than not, but Massapequa was unable to pierce their solid defense. Near the end of the half, the Vikings managed to make several goal attempts that made the crowd "ooh" and "ahh," but when the whistle sounded, the game remained locked at 0-0.

Turning Point: It took the Chiefs a bit to build up their steam in the second half, but with 29:38 remaining Massapequa's Brian Bartichek scored with a close-range baseball slide kick into the Vikings' net.

Highlights of the half included a missed penalty kick by Bartichek and a goal attempt by Port Washington's Timo Santala that went high by a hair.

Key Stat: With 3:24 remaining in the second, Massapequa's Dakota Barnathan fired a rocket into Port Washington's goal, increasing their lead to 2-0 and cementing the Chiefs' eventual victory.

Massapequa head coach Keith Stanley was pleased with the win, but nonetheless critical of his team.

"I thought we did a good job the first half," he said. "Defensively, I think we still have to work harder...the second half, we had some opportunities, but so did they. In the first half, I don't think they had any. That's the way I felt the game should have been played in the second half. But we scored that first goal and we lost our intensity and composure, and good teams are going to bury us...we'll see what happens."

Stanley also gave credit to the Vikings.

"I thought they played really well," he said. "They gave themselves some opportunities that we shouldn't have allowed them to get."

Brian Bartichek felt the Vikings gave them a good fight.

"The game went great," he said. "Port put a lot of pressure on in the first half, and we couldn't score. But we put a lot of pressure on in the second half, and we finally got the job done."

Roberto Reyna said he feels Massapequa needs to amp up the offense.

"We played pretty well," he said. "We played as a team...we should have scored more, but a win's a win, and we'll take it."

Quotable: Port Washington head coach Don Fish seemed to take his team's loss in stride.

"Our team improved immensely from the beginning of the season," he said. "We expected that we had a good chance that we'd be practicing tomorrow and Friday for Saturday's semifinal, but we got beat by a very athletic team."

Fish was proud of his team for giving it all they had.

"I'm pleased my team's effort, to a man," he said. "We just didn't take advantage of some of the opportunities that we had, but I wish the best for Massapequa, and I'm looking forward to watching the County finals."

Hero: Goalie Lucas Joannou, who had an impressive six saves to his credit, was displeased that the Chiefs scored on him twice.

"We held them 0-0 the first half, and no one thought we would," he said. "Second half, we were still holding them, but they just got a cheapie goal right in front of the net, and that happens."

Jordan Spechler was unhappy with the loss, but was pleased with the progress of his Port Washington made this season.

"The team worked really well together. We started off a little shaky early in the season, but we got better and better, and coming up to tonight's game we just got beat. But I'm happy with how we played."

Bottom Line: The Vikings finish the season with a 5-5-4 record.

Massapequa, now 11-3-1, faces Great Neck South at Hofstra University Saturday, November 6th at 5pm to decide the Nassau Class AA semifinals.

Massapequa.................0.......2 – 2

Port Washington..........0.......0 - 0