The Pierson/Bridgehampton boys soccer team has reached the Class C Regional Final the past two seasons, but after graduating nearly a dozen of last year’s team, which lost, 2-0, to Haldane in the game that decides who reached the state championships, it could be a tall task for the team to be able to go that far for a third straight season.
The Whalers lost a number of starters to graduation, including Halsey Burton, Gavin Gilbride, Anthony Ponzini and Javi Tubatan, along with Brandon Guanga, Enzo Merola, Sawyer Davey, Nicky Badilla and Robert Stewart. On top of all of the player changes, the Whalers also had a change at the top, albeit a familiar one. Luis Aguilar, who was an assistant to head coach Dan White last season, will now be the head coach, with White now being the assistant, a plan that was pretty much put in place after longtime head coach Peter Solow retired following the 2021 season.
Following a three-way scrimmage in East Hampton, where Southampton also competed, Aguilar said there’s a lot of work to be done.
“First off, we lost 11 guys, which is pretty big,” he said. “Secondly, we do not have as many year-round soccer players as we did last year. And lastly, we don’t have as many numbers as we did last year, in terms of roster-wise.
“But the scrimmage was good,” Aguilar added. “I got to see a lot of good things from the team. Definitely not as experienced as last year, but I think we’re definitely going to be able to get to a place where I would like them to get to as a team in terms of playing style.”
Pierson will be led by a trio of players in seniors Ryder Esposito and Quinn Tanner and junior Wilmer Reyes. Esposito will continue to control the defense at center back, while both Reyes and Tanner are midfielders. Tanner missed Pierson’s Regional Final game last season due to a concussion, but Aguilar said he’s back healthy this season and ready to go.
“Wilmer, Quinn and Ryder, they’re our only year-round players,” he said. “They know the sport and played last year. They’re hard-working leaders on and off the field.”
Aguilar said he’s excited about the return of senior Gus Hayes, who didn’t play last season, but is back this season, and the addition of Jose Gomez, who has transferred into the district. George Ingolia didn’t get much time in goal playing behind Gavin Gilbride, but he’s going to get first crack at the starting gig going into this season.
“He’s very coachable, very respectable,” Aguilar said of Ingolia. “He does not have quite the soccer experience and maybe not the intensity that Gavin had, which I doubt many do, so I plan to work with him a lot. Again, he’s got a great attitude, a great personality. He just needs to get the fundamentals down. He’s a very important player for us.”
While there was a shakeup statewide in enrollment numbers, Pierson is going to stay put as a Class C team this season, but will play in a much different league than it has the past several years. With teams like Center Moriches and Southampton moving up to Class A/League VIII, Pierson is staying down in League IX with all of the small schools in the county, which includes Class B schools Babylon, Mattituck and Port Jefferson, and fellow “C” schools Greenport and Southold.
Still, with all of the changes in the roster, Aguilar still feels he has a playoff team and its run begins September 6 at Southold at 4:30 p.m. The Whalers don’t play their first home game until September 20, when they’ll play Southold again.
Girls To Play
Down a Division
The East Hampton/Pierson/Bridgehampton girls soccer team was expected to play in Division II this season based on enrollment numbers, but program officials petitioned Section XI to drop the program down to Division III. The county allowed it, making the team ineligible for playoffs this season.
“We believe that this will be beneficial to our team, allowing us to play more competitive games in Division III while our team rebuilds this year,” head coach Cara Nelson said. “We lost nine starters, and our goalie broke her ankle during tryouts. It’s going to be a learning process for the team this year, as we are young in age and experience.”
Included in those nine starters lost to graduation was the team’s entire back line, which included center back and team MVP Jocelyn Prieto. Viviana Guerrero was the goalie Nelson was referring to who broke her ankle in tryouts.
Nelson said she’ll be looking to returning players, East Hampton senior Emily Quizphi, sophomore Hailey Benenaula and freshman Kaylee Munoz, to control the team’s midfield, while senior Ashley Armijos and Pierson senior Stephanie Gordillo lead the defense. Nelson said she also brought up three eighth-graders, whom she’s looking to build the program around, in Shayla Buestan, Elle Reidlinger and Gabriela Montes.
East Hampton played a nonleague game at home on Wednesday against Port Jefferson and will host Islip in its Division III opener on September 5 at 4:30 p.m.