Four Of The South Fork's Five Boys Soccer Teams Clinch Postseason Berths; Southampton Girls Soccer Is Expected To Advance

It’s going to be a busy postseason for area varsity boys soccer teams, as four out of five South Fork teams have qualified.

Now all that has to be done is figuring out the specifics of where and when those teams will play. Official brackets will not be released until about noon this Friday, October 22, on sectionxi.org. In some cases, it’s a forgone conclusion what the schedule will look like for some teams, while for others it was still up in the air as of press time.

The latter goes for East Hampton and Westhampton Beach, which both qualified for the Class A playoffs. The Bonackers did so with a 3-0 victory at home over Islip in their regular-season finale on Monday. Joshua Villaplana, Daniel Londono and John Quizphe all scored in the second half to lead East Hampton to a victory they needed to finish 6-5-1 in League V (8-5-1 overall).

Westhampton Beach clinched its playoff berth with a 1-1 tie at home with Half Hollow Hills West on October 12. Although the Hurricanes dropped their final two games of the season in a pair of 3-2 games to Comsewogue and Eastport-South Manor, Westhampton Beach finished with even records across the board at 6-6-2 in League IV, 7-7-2 overall.

Both East Hampton head coach Don McGovern and Westhampton Beach head coach Cody Hoyt would not offer an idea of where they thought their teams might lie in the brackets. For a few reasons. The first being there were still some last games to be played on Tuesday afternoon that could have ramifications on seeding with over a dozen teams having already qualified.

Another reason is seeding may not mean much in this year’s playoffs, other than deciding where games will be played, because there is so much parity within the class this season. Although teams like Comsewogue and Amityville and Shoreham-Wading River will most likely go into the postseason with just one loss each and top seeds, the thought from around the county is that they’re not unbeatable.

The Class A playoffs are expected to begin this Monday, October 25.

“I think it’s really open. Every game is a toss up,” Hoyt said. “I think this league has helped us prepare for that in a sense.”

“Any given day anybody can knock someone off,” McGovern reiterated. “Amityville won our league, but every game played was tight. I think we’re going to get potentially five teams from our league make the playoffs.”

Not nearly as many teams will make the Class B playoffs, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be as competitive. It’s quite the opposite.

Babylon defeated Southampton, 2-0, on Monday in the regular season finale to force a share of the League VII title between both teams since each finished with identical 14-2 records. It also forced what’s going to be a very difficult decision for the seeding committee to decide which of the two teams gets the top seed. Southampton defeated Babylon, 3-0, earlier this season, but as Mariners head coach Dave Riley said, it’s anyone’s guess which team will be the top seed.

Whether it’s the one or two seed, Southampton will host its county semifinal game on Wednesday, October 27, against either Mattituck (13-2-1) or Center Moriches (9-6-1). Riley was disappointed with the season-finale loss to Babylon, but the Panthers had their backs against the wall, he said. A tie would have dropped them to second place and a loss as low as third place.

“Babylon was picked to win the league and we were seeded third this preseason, so we kind of came out of nowhere and I’m very proud of our guys for doing that,” Riley said. “Any time you share that league title though, you open the door for not getting the seed you want. I tip my hat to Babylon, now it’s a little bit out of our control and we’ll have to see how the seeding falls. I think they studied up and out prepared us for this game and I give them credit for that. They are a good team. To be in their company speaks highly to how hard these players have worked and how much we’ve come together as a team.”

The Class C bracket is a little more cut and dry, at least in the sense of who will be playing who, where and when — Pierson/Bridgehampton earned the top seed by finishing 8-7-1 in League VII and will play Southold for the county title on Saturday, October 30, at Diamond in the Pines in Coram, tentatively scheduled for 1 p.m. The Whalers and Settlers played to a 1-1 tie in their regular season finale on Monday in Southold, a much different result from when Pierson defeated the Settlers, 6-1, earlier this season. Pierson head coach Peter Solow expected a much different game the second time around, what he didn’t expect was the poor play from his players. He expects that to change in what will be a rematch of the county final this past spring, which Southold won, 4-0.

While it wasn’t known as of press time whether the Southampton girls soccer team had officially clinched a playoff spot, head coach Sean Zay is expecting his team to advance.

Zay admitted that trying to figure out the county’s power point system is more of a mathematical equation than he expected it to be, but as it stood on Monday night, his team sat third behind what is expected to be the top seed in Babylon and Mattituck/Southold/Greenport, who sat just ahead of the Mariners in the standings. But if the power points change just a little bit, Southampton could jump ahead of Mattituck for the second seed and host what would be its first ever home playoff game this Monday, October 25.

Southampton rolled into the postseason, having not lost their previous eight games and having won their last seven in a row.