By Tom Jordan
South Side's 4-0 victory over Suffolk County champion Sachem in the Southeast Regional/Long Island title game on Sat., Nov. 10 ensured that another trip upstate would be necessary. The victory before 500-plus spectators at the Mitchel Athletic Complex was undefeated South Side's 18th of the season. The Cyclones have not lost a game since the Long Island final two years ago, when Whitman beat them 4-3 on penalty kicks after 110 minutes of play. Their winning streak has swelled to 48 games.
The Final Four tournament starts on Fri., Nov. 16. South Side will play either Shenendehowa or Liverpool in the semifinal round at 4 p.m. at Wheatland-Chili High School, the same field on which the Cyclones defeated Rochester's own Wheatland High last November to put the finishing touches on a 20-0 dream season. With a win Friday and another the following day, the Cyclones would duplicate that feat and win another title.
Though they have clearly dominated the competition on Long Island, the stakes are higher now and the Cyclones will be far from home. But they've proven to be road warriors all along. They won all four straight playoff games at Mitchel Field against teams with hearts set on dethroning the champions.
They won the final game in Rochester last season before a very partisan home crowd.
This year's playoff run started way back on Oct. 29, with a 2-1 win over Farmingdale. Senior Corry Silon and junior Christine Abrams each scored for the winners. Neither has stopped coming up big since.
The pair handled the scoring again in a Nov. 2 win over a feisty Oceanside team, a team that led South Side, albeit briefly. Abrams tied the game before the first half ended and Silon won it in the second.
In all, Silon has four goals in the playoffs, Abrams three.
Silon scored the lone goal in last year's Long Island final, a 1-0 shot of redemption for South Side over Whitman.
A freshman, Jenna Lucchessi scored the game's only goal in a 1-0 win over Valley Stream Central on Nov. 7. The Cyclones dominated that game, getting off 22 shots to Valley Stream's four, but the game wasn't decided until Lucchessi dented the net.
Silon scored twice in the Long Island final, the first on an errant pass that eluded the Sachem goalkeeper and found the net. South Side coach Bob Bigelow, who has been at the Cyclone's helm for 21 seasons, called it a
