Season Preview: Southampton Boys, Girls Soccer, Field Hockey Have Playoff Aspirations

It’s status quo for the most part when it comes to the upcoming fall athletic season at Southampton High School, and for the most part, that’s very positive.

Both the boys and girls soccer teams are expected to remain playoff contenders and field hockey has moved down a class (C) and could very well give Pierson a run for the county title. But there is one thing that still sticks in the craws of local residents and maybe even Southampton Athletic Director Darren Phillips — the continued absence of football.

The Mariners will not field a varsity football team, and it is going on three years since the school has last played on the gridiron. There is some light at the end of that tunnel, though — Southampton will have a junior varsity team this season, something it hasn’t had the past two seasons.

Phillips said there are 20 or so players on that team and former varsity head coach Edgar “Hikey” Franklin is the head coach. Whether those positives lead to an eventual varsity rebirth remains to be seen, though. In fact, Phillips put a realistic timeline of possibly having a varsity football team again in two years.

It’s because of all of those factors that Phillips has been thinking outside of the box when it comes to football. One thing that has been catching on upstate is eight vs. eight football, which recently received its own championship by the New York State Public High School Athletic Association. The idea behind the 8 v. 8 scenario is less bodies, less injuries, and it spreads the field wide open so there is more action and more scoring. And a huge advantage, especially for programs that are struggling to field teams such as Southampton, the obvious need for less players.

Phillips said he could see his school having an 8 v. 8 squad even sooner than the typical 11 vs. 11 scenario, maybe as soon as next year, depending on what his coaches and players want to do. Of course, there is always the possibility of combining with another district, such as Hampton Bays, which dropped its varsity football team this season for the first time in 47 years.

For now, though, Southampton will continue to be, as it has for over a decade now, a bona fide “soccer school,” as both the boys and girls teams reload for this season.

The Southampton boys soccer team lost to Mattituck in the Suffolk County Class B semifinals last season in one of the most dramatic fashions a team can lose in soccer — a very long and intense shootout that the Tuckers eventually won. There was a questionable call that called off what would have been the game-winning goal for Southampton in the second overtime of that game, and to say the loss lingered with the players would be a bit of an understatement, head coach Dave Riley said.

But Riley is trying to get his players to learn from that loss and have it fuel them going into this season.

“Our approach to this season, with last year being pretty devastating to the guys, I think they don’t want to be in that situation where it’s that close again. Our motto is ‘Get better, not bitter’ and that kind of summarizes how we don’t want to be in a situation again where we’re blaming things on the ref or we’re keeping things within reach for our opponent,” Riley explained. “And that leads to our next theme, which is ‘Everybody play like it’s your senior year,’ because we had guys last year where that loss was their final game.”

Southampton lost nearly a dozen players to graduation last season, namely Turner West and Patrick Matthews, who both played in the Exceptional Senior Game after the season was over. Another loss that was a bit unexpected was Chris “Moose” Sullivan, who opted to play in the MLS Next Academy. Players in the academy are not eligible to play for their high school.

But Riley likes what he has coming back, especially in a pair of senior goalies in longtime starter and captain Andy Panza and Riley Herrmann, who, even as good as Panza was last year with a number of shutouts to his credit, is expected to get some time in goal this season.

Another pair of seniors, Yostinfer Sandoval Vazquez and Thayer Schwartz, are also returning along with a trio of juniors in Erick Campohermoso, a midfielder, and defender Mason Stevens and midfielder Danny Bustamante.

Southampton will play in League V, a mixed classification league, which will be another dogfight this season. The Mariners were co-league champs with Babylon last season, but Center Moriches and Mattituck all vied for the top spot at points as well, and Riley expects it to play out similarly this season. Pierson, a Class C team, has almost its entire team back from last year when it reached the Regional Final and could play a deciding factor in which team wins the league this season as well.

Southampton opens the season this Friday night against Southold at 6:30 p.m.

After losing a dozen players to graduation, most of whom were starters, a handful of whom were some of the best the program has ever seen, Southampton girls soccer head coach Sean Zay still sees his team as a playoff contender, and it’s because of what he has coming back, and they’re all very familiar names.

Juliette and Vivienne Archer, a senior and sophomore, respectively, are back, along with senior midfielder Emily Zukosky, younger sister of Taylor Zukosky, who was one of the graduates. Hailey Cameron, younger sister of Carli Cameron, another graduate, is also returning, along with sophomores Sophia Oliveri, Emma Vail and Leilani Escobar. Seniors Cece Ginsburg and Amy Jimenez are also returning and will shore up the defense.

Zay expects the team to keep its playoff run of four years going, and if it reaches its true potential, anything is possible.

“It seems as though everyone on this year’s team is everyone’s little sister from last year’s team,” he said. “Some of them were bench players behind their sisters but now some of them have a chance to step out of their shadows and step up.

“I don’t know what the county is going to be like, [but] we have a really good program right now and we could be one of those really sneaky teams.”

The Mariners start the season this Thursday in a nonleague game at Riverhead at 4 p.m.

Southampton field hockey head coach Jackie Trelease said last year was a disappointing season for a team that had a good amount of seniors, but ultimately only won a pair of games. The team lost nine seniors to graduation, including the Gabrielle sisters, Bridget, Clare and Maggie, and four-year starter Lucy Wesnofske.

But the Mariners still have a few things going for them.

First and foremost, a big need for any potential playoff team is a stud goalie and they have that in All-Division senior Chloe Phillips. Trelease said her team lost so many close games last season in large part because of how good Phillips was. She’s hoping those close losses turn into wins this season.

Another thing going for the Mariners is the fact that they are a Class C team this season, dropping down from a Class B team the past few years due to enrollment changes. That means they could possibly push perennial powerhouse and state semifinalist Pierson for a county title this fall.

“It’ll be an interesting season,” Trelease said. “I have a bunch of girls who genuinely love the sport and who have had good attitudes throughout the preseason. As long as they work together as a team they should be good. Especially being a ‘C’ team.”

One drawback to her team’s schedule, Trelease said, is that it doesn’t play a fellow ‘C’ team until one of the last weeks in the season. In the meantime, it will contend with some of the larger ‘B’ schools, such as Harborfields, which it will host in its season opener this Thursday at 5 p.m.

The Southampton girls tennis team went 4-10 last season and head coach Richard “Juni” Wingfield said if certain players take leaps in their game this season, there could be improvement, but that remains to be seen. The Mariners lost their top two players to graduation in Shelby De Los Santos and Maddie Taylor.

Key returners include London Bess, Elizabeth Ayavaca and Georgia Wilutis. Wingfield is encouraged by a trio of sophomores who “could be the future,” in Riley Voke, Catherine Blackmore and Riley Panza and eighth-grader Sally De Los Santos, younger sister of former players Shelby and Lucy De Los Santos.

Southampton hosts Longwood in a nonleague match this Friday at 5 p.m.

Editor’s note — fall previews continue next week with cross country, boys golf and girls volleyball.