South Side in heated playoff race

Two-time defending Nassau Class A boys’ soccer champion South Side is fighting for its playoff life with four games to go in the regular season, but coach Fred Paul is confident the Cyclones can make a run if they get in.

“We’re just trying to get into the dance,” he said after a 1-1 tie at Garden City Oct. 6. “I know if we make the playoffs, nobody’s going to want to dance with us.”

Four of the six teams in Conference A-IV advance to postseason play, and Roslyn has the top spot all but officially locked. Jericho, Garden City, New Hyde Park and South Side were all separated by just one point heading into this week’s action. A win is worth three points and a tie is worth one.

“It’s a big point,” Paul said of the draw with Garden City, which handed the Cyclones a 4-0 loss in the conference opener.

“We’ve been resilient,” he added. “I think I finally found the rotation I like best and I’m happy with the way we’ve corrected mistakes. We’re not perfect, but at the same time we’re not making the same mistakes over and over.”

Paul said he was pleased with how South Side controlled most of the tempo against Garden City after the result of the first meeting. The Trojans scored three minutes into the rematch off a restart when Jack Metzler converted a pass from standout Sean Bingham (10 goals, seven assists in 2011), but the Cyclones tied it seven minutes later when senior Kyle Morrissey, who recently moved to defense from midfield, headed in a free kick off the foot of freshman Alessandro Pugliese.

“I like the way we played,” Paul said. “Our defense was sound. On their goal, the ball hit off our wall and took a favorable deflection for them. It happens. We came back with a beautiful goal and created some other chances. We hit the crossbar and post with shots.”

Paul also tweaked the midfield, moving senior Kevin Cook up front with Pugliese, junior Stephen Tita, and sophomore Marco Schaden, and sliding senior Chris Harkins to the center with junior Dane Flaherty. Pugliese and Tita scored in a recent 3-2 loss to Jericho. Sophomores Brian Hurwitz and Chuck Leone are starting at outside middie.

Defensively, the Cyclones are “significantly better” with Morrissey’s move to sweeper, Paul said. Morrissey joined junior stopper Mark Romanowski and fullbacks William Nelson and Gerard Mahoney in the back but will still make runs up front on set plays. In goal, sophomore Thomas Germano has emerged as the starting keeper and posted back-to-back 1-0 shutouts against Wantagh and New Hyde Park.

“We’re slowly but surely coming around,” Paul said. “But we don’t have any margin for error left.”

A fortunate bounce or two wouldn’t hurt South Side’s playoff chances down the stretch. It has games remaining with Roslyn, Wantagh, New Hyde Park and Jericho.

“I said from the beginning two quality teams from our conference will miss the playoffs,” Paul said. “We don’t want to be one of them.”