By Tom Jordan and Tony Bellisimo
Team continues undefeated season
South Side girls' soccer coach Bob Bigelow said as the playoffs began two weeks ago that the expectations of an undefeated season were no fun for him and that he preferred being the underdog.
But the Cyclones' 1-0 victory over Suffolk County champion Whitman in the Long Island championship game on Nov. 12 has earned them a trip to Rochester, where they will shoot to become the first girls' soccer team to win a state title unbeaten. They are 19-0.
This will be South Side's 12th trip to the state Final Four in Coach Bigelow's 20 years at the school, and its first in Class A, having moved up from the 'B' bracket a year ago. The Cyclones have won the state Class B title eight times.
South Side will play Monroe-Woodbury in the semifinals at 11 A.M. Friday, Nov. 17. The other two teams in the Class A state finals are Rochester's own Webster and from western Niskayuna.
As the Cyclones were putting the final touches on a masterful, undefeated regular season, Coach Bigelow talked about how hard it had been for his team to keep winning while everyone was gunning for them.
"In what is probably the toughest league in the state, we always get the best the other teams have. We've always been targets," he said.
Bigelow said all four teams in Rochester are unfamiliar opponents. "Everything is a mystery right now. We're trying to gather some information on our first opponent, and while we're down there, we'll try to somehow get a look at the other two," he said. "Right now, the girls are just looking forward to the trip. It's a step in the direction of what we want to accomplish."
So too was the defeat of Whitman, which turned the tables on the team that ended the Cyclones' season last year with an overtime, shootout victory in the Long Island championship game. Whitman, of South Huntington, entered this year's Long Island title game 19-0.
"Winning that game was the best feeling ever," said goalkeeper Meredith Finch. The senior co-captain turned back Whitman's powerful offense, making 14 saves. "It's all we thought about for a year. But I knew we could do it."
"The key was defense by all eleven players, including the keeper," Coach Bigelow said. "Meredith got a chance to show what she can do, and she's one of the best around. She's not tested very often, but when she is, she gets the job done."
But though they achieved their goal of making it to Rochester, neither Bigelow nor his players seem to have lost their edge.
"The Whitman game was so close, anybody could have won," the coach said. "If we think we've got the title wrapped up now, then we should lose. This is one weekend that [the players] will remember for the rest of their lives."
Finch acknowledged that once the Whitman game ended, she had to readjust her focus. "We'll have to play well to win in Rochester. State titles don't just come in a package."
