It’s not Ted Lasso’s “Believe” sign, but there’s a similar inspirational message in the Mepham boys’ soccer locker room.
“We win, or we learn.”
Both have rung true for the Pirates, who learned their lessons from an emotional 3-2 defeat to rival MacArthur to go 2-1-1 in their next four matches to put themselves in contention for second place in Nassau AA-1.
“It's always about learning when the results don’t go our way,” Mepham coach Zach Gosse said.
Against the Generals, Mepham (4-3-2) rallied from a two-goal deficit to equalize on second-half goals by Rhys Markwalter and Derek Arcos and had the momentum down the stretch.
But Matt Kobrin scored the decisive penalty kick goal for MacArthur with 1:13 left in the match.
“It definitely was a teachable moment for us because I don't think we played very well. The few minutes where we seemed to turn it on and get ourselves back into the game is obviously a positive, but there were some critical errors there,” Gosse said. “When I talked to them after the game, I said I’m proud of you guys for finding a way to get yourselves back into the game.”
The response came two days later when Mepham defeated Calhoun, 2-0, in another rivalry showdown. Isaac Contreras and Jeronimo Norena scored a goal in each half in the bounce-back win.
Frank Giovanniello only needed to make two saves to earn the shutout, with Chase LaBorne anchoring the backline in front of him.
A 3-1 victory over East Meadow followed, with Kevin Gutierrez scoring a brace and Contreras finding the back of the net again.
“I don't think we’ve put our heads down once this year,” Gosse said. “We seem to bounce back when things don’t go our way, which says a lot about the kids and especially the seniors; they’re resilient.”
On a team that Gosse said has overachieved this season, Norena, the senior attacking midfielder, has led both on and off the field.
“Jeronimo is always a good voice. He gives good constructive criticism,” Gosse said. “On the field, he gets us back going. He doesn’t give up.”
After a 1-1 draw against Carey, Mepham played a solid opening half in a 3-0 loss to undefeated Garden City on Friday.
“We played very organized for 39 minutes and 30 seconds, and they scored with 12 seconds left in the first half, which is such a killer, and that's very similar to how it went the first time we played them, we conceded in the last three minutes of the first half,” Gosse said.
“You can see how when we’re organized, and we communicate, and we’re all on the same page, we can be a tough team to break down, but it’s just little mistakes, errors that all lead to conceding goals.”
Now the Pirates head into the stretch drive of the regular season tied with Carey for third place, one point behind second-place MacArthur. A must-win game at Jericho is followed by matches against Long Beach and Bethpage before a massive rematch against MacArthur to close out the regular season.
“Our goal is to try to finish second, which would probably guarantee us a home playoff game, and that would be huge,” Gosse said. “That’s the goal, and it's all within our control.”
