Picking up where they left off

Junior Chris Harkins converted a crossing pass from senior Ben Tetelman five minutes into the second half to lift defending Nassau Class A boys’ soccer champion South Side to a 1-0 victory over Conference V rival Division last Monday at Skelos Sports Complex.

“It was a pretty goal,” coach Fred Paul said after the Cyclones improved to 2-0-3 overall. “I’m very comfortable with our restarts. It’s one of those plays you draw up in practice and hope it works on game days.”

South Side’s defense and goalkeeping was working again. Senior Deven Khosla turned aside all eight shots he faced to record the team’s 11th shutout in the past 13 games dating back to last fall.

“We’re not big fans of giving up goals,” Paul said. “We carried over the same philosophy from last year. I guess defense is our bread and butter.”

The back line gained considerable additions to senior All-County sweeper Jeff Cohen and senior fullback Alex Norwood. Sophomore Mark Romanowski, who had four goals and seven assists in 2009, moved to stopper, and junior Will Nelson was elevated from JV to start at fullback.

“Mark is a special player and a natural stopper,” Paul said. “He’s one of our best strikers, but at the same time he makes us a better team this year as a defender.

Last year we played a very specific type of defense,” he added. “With Mark back there now with Jeff, we’re able to possess the ball a lot more as opposed to simply clear it.”

Romanowski and Norwood neutralized Division’s Shane McLaughlin, who entered the game with five goals, and Nelson contained Logan Simone, who had two goals and three assists. Cohen, the unit’s vocal leader, provided support throughout.

Khosla and junior Taylor Kosakoff are sharing the workload in goal. Each has a pair of shutouts. “It’s a nice luxury to have two strong keepers,” Paul said. “They’ve both made excellent saves when they’ve had to. I’m not sure how the situation is going to play out over the season. Which one we use might depend on the opponent.”

Injuries have forced some shifting at midfield and forward. Junior Kevin Cook has started the past two games at forward in place of senior Alexei Lesko, who could return from an ankle injury as early as Friday when Sewanhaka visits for a 4:30 p.m. start. Senior Mike Marano returned at forward and is a constant threat to score. Harkins, Marano, and senior Sam Bolnick had goals in a 3-0 victory over Hewlett on Sept. 23. Kosakoff made eight saves.

Tetelman, the hero of last year’s county championship game against Garden City with the overtime goal, works at center-midfield along with sophomore Kyle Morrissey. “We’re relying on them to play big minutes every game,” Paul said. Harkins, who has three of the team’s five goals, plays on the outside with seniors Tom Kane and Jared Monfort, and freshman Marco Schaden.

“Our goal is no different than past years,” Paul said. “We want to win the last game we play.”