By Steve Siniski
It's been a rough 2000 campaign for the Lynbrook boys' varsity soccer team, who fell to 1-5-1 with a 3-1 loss to Friends Academy on Oct. 4.
"It's been an up-and-down year for us," Lynbrook boys soccer coach Brian Sundberg said. "We should have won against Friends Academy. We outplayed them for 70 minutes, but one of our season-long problems creeped up."
The Owls led 1-0 with just 12 minutes to play in the second half, when Friends Academy scored three straight goals to go home with the win. "All year long we've had a problem playing the entire game, coming up short in either the beginning, middle or end. We've got to play the full 80 minutes."
With the score tied 1-1. Lynbrook appeared poised to take the lead, but a non-call in the box thwarted the Owls efforts. "We had a player taken out at the 6-yard line," Sundberg said. "if we got the call, it would have been a penalty shot for us."
Before writing off the Owls, just look at whom they beat and tied for their three points. Lynbrook tied top-seeded Great Neck North 1-1 on Sept. 28, as John Morales converted a penalty kick with less than five minutes to play. And on Sept. 20, second-seeded Sewhanaka fell to Lynbrook 3-2. It was Morales again notching the game-winning goal, with 3:30 to play.
"We've just got to learn to win the games," Sundberg said. "It's the same with the tie. We got the tie and dominated, but we have to understand that we have to put the ball in the net. It's nice to outplay teams, but we've got to start getting those two points. It's basically a must-win for us the rest of the year, so we can see how everything pans out."
The Owls recent efforts have not gone unnoticed by Sundberg, as the team starts its second go-around in Conference B-IV play.
"We're starting to play as a team now," Sundberg added. "We weren't playing together before, but now we're starting to put more passes together, playing the wide ball better and getting more and better opportunities."
Along with Morales, Sundberg will be looking to two players in particular down the stretch. Sweeper Jordan Engles and defensemen Kijoon Keum have provided the Owls with solid leadership on defense, and will be key players if Lynbrook is to make
a late-season run.
"We need everyone to step up at the same time," Sundberg said. "We just have to finish up strong and see what happens."
Up next for the Owls is an Oct. 17 rematch with Sewanhaka and then a second game with Clarke on Oct. 19. The Owls dropped a 5-1 decision to Clarke on Oct. 2.
sub hed: In other Lynbrook sports news...
The Owls girls' varsity soccer team hit a bump in the road with a 2-0 loss to Farmingdale. Lynbrook ran into a hot goaltender in Farmingdale's Caitlin Howard, who recorded her second shutout in a row. It snapped the Owls three-game winning streak which included a 2-1 win over Port Washington, a 4-2 victory over Great Neck North and a 4-0 blanking of Plainview JFK. Erin Schor led the Owls with three goals during the winning streak, while Catherine Wyndham tallied twice.
The girls have a game with Bellmore JFK on the horizon on Oct. 19, the only team other than Farmingdale to defeat the
Owls in conference play.
