Westhampton Beach Boys Soccer Suffers First League Loss Friday

Just prior to kickoff on Friday afternoon with his team hosting Hauppauge, Westhampton Beach boys soccer head coach Cody Hoyt liked the way his team was playing, having won four straight games, three in league play. But he cautioned that just about every team in League IV this season is “scrappy,” and no game can be taken lightly.

The Hurricanes learned that lesson the hard way, suffering their first league loss of the season, 3-1, to the Eagles, who evened up their record at 2-2. Ethan Vogt put Westhampton Beach on the board about halfway through the first half, when senior co-captain Loris Von Vlodrop made a nice individual effort of keeping the ball inbounds on the back line, then finding Vogt at the top of the box. The junior buried the ball into the back of the net, giving the ’Canes an early 1-0 advantage.

But from that point on, Hauppauge controlled much of the tempo of the game. Aidan Augeri tied the game five minutes later on an unsavable ball he put into the top left corner, then the Eagles were awarded a questionable penalty kick when one of their players was bumped in the box. Ryan Rush took the PK and scored giving Hauppauge a lead it never relinquished — Rush also scored the lone second-half goal for the Eagles.

“We had the one goal, we came out strong, and then we kind of let them back in, I think, on some mental errors on our part,” Hoyt said after the game. “I think it was more us defeating ourselves. Mentally, we got a little lapsy, I guess … and they were able to capitalize on it. I think it was more our errors that really got them back into the game, and then once they got back in they got the momentum and held onto it.”

Westhampton Beach senior co-captain Andre Insalaco said it was a tough loss, but there’s a lot of season left. And unlike this spring in the COVID-shortened campaign, his team will play Hauppauge again and try and turn around the loss.

“Overall, I think 50, 60 minutes of that game we played well. When we went up one-nil, we got a little complacent and then from there it just deteriorated,” he said. “And yeah, two unlucky goals, a quick shot and then a questionable penalty. It was probably a foul, but it was a little soft. I think we had a few just like it that weren’t called. A bit unlucky but definitely an off day for us. It was the first bad game we had in the league so the good thing is we see everybody again.”

What made the loss extra tough to swallow was that Hauppauge had defeated the ’Canes, 4-3, this past spring, a game they were leading 3-1 at one point.

“It’ll be nice to be able to see them again in a few weeks,” Insalaco said. “We win from here, we’re still going to be league champions, and that’s definitely our goal. So we just have to refocus, recenter and keep going from here because in general we’ve been playing really well. I think the last three games in the turn we did well without some of our main guys against some really good teams. We got the wins, so just keep going from here. The performance wasn’t our worst, honestly, it was just a couple unlucky moments and we weren’t able to create as many chances as we would have liked.”

As of Monday afternoon, Westhampton Beach, Comsewogue and Half Hollow Hills West all sat in first place together with identical 3-1 League IV records, with East Islip, Hauppauge and Eastport-South Manor just a game behind.

The spring season was a successful one for the ’Canes, who reached the playoffs after missing out on them for a few years. But it was a tough end to the season, to say the least — nearly the entire team missed its playoff game at Elwood/John Glenn due to COVID protocols. The team lost 11 players to graduation following the playoff loss to Glenn, and many didn’t think the ’Canes would bounce back the way they have, but the players are extra motivated after how last season ended.

For what it’s worth, the ’Canes defeated Glenn, 3-0, in a non-league game on September 14.

“Some of the guys are new, but for all of the returners, we feel like we’ve got some unfinished business, that’s our team motto all season,” Insalaco said. “We want to try and get some revenge for some of our boys who graduated. We want to try and get that title for them because they weren’t able to go for it.”