Baldwin goes down battling

Baldwin and Westbury entered last Friday’s Nassau Class AA boys’ soccer playoff game as two of the hottest teams in the county with a combined six wins and one tie since Oct. 6.

Baldwin, which posted four straight shutouts including a 3-0 victory over Herricks in the tournament’s lone play-in game on Oct. 18, was solved twice by Westbury freshman Diego Turcios, once in each half, and saw its first season under coach Chris Soupios end with a 2-0 defeat.

Turcios put the Bruins (6-8-1 overall) in a hole less than two minutes into the contest and added an insurance tally with 22 minutes remaining to lead the fifth-seeded Green Dragons, who advanced to face No. 4 Long Beach. Westbury senior goalkeeper Hector Guevara Salinas made three saves, while Baldwin senior goalie Malcolm Brown turned aside five shots.

“We played our best soccer at the end of the season,” Soupios said. “We felt a little insulted to get the 12 seed and wanted to prove we were better than that with our full lineup.

“It was tough to fall behind so early against Westbury and it’s never fun to try to play catch-up,” he added. “The kids played hard all the way.”

Baldwin’s late-season streak began with a 1-0 victory over East Meadow and was highlighted by a 2-0 win at Hicksville. It wasn’t a coincidence, Soupios said, that senior midfielder John Gamble returned following a five-game absence to provide a spark.

“We went 1-4 without John and kind of lost our identity a little bit,” Soupios explained. “He means a lot. Getting him back boosted everyone else’s confidence and we played our best game of the year against Hicksville.” Gamble, set up by senior Juan Gordillo, scored in the first half against the Comets and also assisted on senior Kourtne Herbert’s second-half goal.

“Even though he missed those five games, he was honorable mention All-County,” Soupios said of Gamble, who picked up an assist in the play-in triumph over Herricks. 

Bell, who was also named honorable mention All-County, made five saves against East Meadow, six against Hicksville, seven in a scoreless draw against Plainview in the regular-season finale, and six against Herricks.

“Malcolm had a great season,” Soupios said. 

Bell got all the offensive support he would need against Herricks just eight minutes in when junior Sean Quane scored off a feed from junior Jhamara Hunter. Fifteen minutes later, sophomore Andrew Lawrence notched his first goal of 2017 when he banged home a rebound of Herbert’s shot. Quane and Lawrence both missed four games apiece due to injuries, Soupios said.

Seven minutes into the second half, Gamble split defenders and sent a perfect pass that Herbert converted for an insurance tally.

“We battled through a lot of injuries,” Soupios said.

In addition to Gamble and Bell, three other seniors earned individual awards. Gordillo, senior Jimmy Noel and senior Paul Guiracocha were selected All-Conference. Gordillo set up Guiracocha for the winner Oct. 6 against East Meadow.