Late goal lifts South Side over Kennedy

South Side’s Alessandro Pugliese got his foot on the ball just outside Kennedy’s box with overtime looming in last Friday night’s Nassau Class A boys’ soccer semifinal matchup at Hofstra.

There was room to shoot, but the Cyclones’ leading scorer created just a little bit more with a hesitation move and then blasted the ball past a diving Jake Silverman with 2:01 remaining to provide the difference in a 2-1 victory that advanced South Side to its fourth county title game in five years.

“I was going to shoot right away, but I saw some space and took an extra touch before letting it go,” Pugliese said. “I had a good angle and thought it was going in as soon as it left my foot.”

Fourth-seeded South Side (11-3-3), which captured back-to-back county crowns in 2009-10, moved on to face two-time defending champion Jericho, the No. 7 seed, in a rematch of last year’s Class A final on Wednesday at Adelphi after presstime. The Jayhawks worked overtime to beat Roslyn in the other semifinal, 1-0.

“At any moment he can do what he just did,” Cyclones coach Fred Paul said of Pugliese, who opened the scoring 14:06 into the game on a shot from 40 yards out. “That was just brilliance,” he added. “It’s nothing you can teach.”

No. 9 Kennedy (8-5-3), which stunned top-seeded Wantagh, 1-0, in the quarterfinals, and beat the Cyclones 1-0 during the regular season, pulled even with 19:41 to play when Daniel Elegante scored off a scramble following a corner kick. “I thought we had a great run and played a good enough game to win,” Cougars coach Jason Elias said. “We threw everything we had at them in the second half. We got beat by an incredible shot by a tremendous player.

“I told our guys before the playoffs started we were just one win away from being seeded in the top four,” he added. “We used our seed as motivation. We went on the road and beat a good Cold Spring Harbor team and then play our hearts out against Wantagh. We had a special group and they proved we were much better than our seed. They deserved to continue the run.”

Kennedy, which entered the semis with only one loss in eight games, settled down after yielding the early goal and turned up the heat. Yet the Cougars, who took six corners, only forced Cyclones goalkeeper Thomas Germano to make two saves in the first half and three on the night. Silverman, who posted nine shutouts on the year, had five stops.

South Side’s best offensive pressure came at the start of the second half when it took three corner kicks and had Chuck Leone’s shot from just inside the box clang off the post. “We didn’t play a good game, but we played well for the first 10 minutes of the second half,” Paul said. “We need to be better if we’re going to win this thing.”