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Wilmer Reyes (2) and the rest of the Whalers will be fighting for a berth into the New York State semifinals when they play in the Regional Final on November 5. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
The Pierson/Bridgehampton boys soccer team was given the Suffolk County Class C title outright last week when Section XI decided that a game was not needed to decide the outcome.
Based on records and previous outcomes of games, it was expected the Whalers would face Southold this Saturday, October 29, for the county championship, but in a bit of a surprising move, the governing body of Suffolk County high school athletics deemed it unnecessary. Pierson finished the season 8-5-3 in League V while Southold finished 5-10-1. Included in those records was a 3-1 Pierson victory at home over Southold on September 28, but then the two teams tied, 2-2, in the regular season finale on October 19.
The two teams had similar records last year when the Whalers, who finished the league season, 9-7-1, defeated Southold, who finished 6-10-1, 2-0, for their first county title since 2017.
Pierson head coach Dan White saw both sides of the argument on whether to have a game. Playing devil’s advocate, White did say that Section XI has a longstanding rule that it’s firm on that teams that finish the season with below .500 records are susceptible to not making it in. He also said that had Southold been granted its petition to play Pierson in the county final, Port Jefferson, and Greenport for that matter, which each finished just a game behind Southold with 4-12 records, could have argued for their inclusion in a deeper playoff. Then, White said, the whole officials shortage would have most likely come into play.
“Look, I’ve been on both sides of it. I can honestly say it sucks to be on the wrong side, and it’s good to be on the good side,” White said. “They probably should have let us play. The Southold coach puts his whole life into that program. We’re clearly injured, they could have beat us. I mean the last time we played it was 2-2. I do think we’re the better team, especially when guys like Quinn [Tanner], David [Moreno] and Helio [Paucar] are there and healthy. But we’re not healthy.”
In the end, he told his players to enjoy the fact that they’re county champions and move on to the next game, which will be the Regional Finals — the same game they reached last season, losing to eventual state champion Alexander Hamilton — on November 5. Again, just like last season, a win there would send the Whalers to the New York State semifinals.
“One thing I did say during our coaches meeting was if they do play that game, it does kind of devalue the league, and that league is tough,” White added as the other side of the token. “There’s Babylon, Center Moriches, Southampton, Mattituck, and even a team like Greenport played well late. So to have all the injuries that we have and finish where we finished, that’s definitely an accomplishment, and that’s what I told the kids in practice. That’s why you’re county champions. Don’t discount or discredit the last two and a half months. They certainly earned it.”
One thing that will certainly help having the next two weeks or so off is allowing the Whalers to heal up from a hard fought regular season. As White mentioned, Tanner (concussion), Moreno (hamstring), Paucar and Wilmer Reyes were all nursing various injuries. But both Paucar and Reyes are already back in the mix, White said, with Tanner and Moreno hopefully not far behind.
“I think Quinn could be back. He suffered a concussion two weeks ago at Greenport,” White explained. “David has had a bad hamstring pull. He’s three weeks into what was expected to be a five-week absence, so we’ll see about him.”
“We need Quinn,” he added. “He’s smart, he’s skilled. Physically, he makes the right decisions. We get half the chances that we normally don’t get without him. He’s just great in the midfield.”
One thing White said his players did bring up was the worry about not playing a meaningful game in the two weeks that they have to prepare. As he told his players, White said they can get scrimmages in with fellow playoff teams — in fact, they already scrimmaged East Hampton, one of the top teams in the county, last week.
“We will not play anyone as good as they are the rest of the way. They are really good,” White said of East Hampton. “We’ll figure something out. We’re not going to go two weeks without playing. Will there be refs? No, but it’s not like we’re just going to practice for two weeks. We can always get a game in.”
Pierson will play the winner of the Section I (Dutchess, Putnam, Rockland, Westchester counties) Section IX (Orange, Sullivan, Ulster counties) game in the Regional Final. According to the latest New York State Sportswriters Association rankings from October 18, Rhinebeck (Section IX) is ranked second among Class C teams with a 12-0 record while Haldane (Section I) is sixth with a 12-2 record.
White told his players that most in their position would love to be in the situation that they have in front of them — win one game and go to states.
“Anything can happen, especially in soccer, but if you win one game, you go to the state final four,” he said. “And most of them agreed. I definitely think we might struggle the first 10 to 15 minutes to find our rhythm in that first game back, but we’ll settle down and play our game and see where it goes.”
