Saturday, November 8, 2025
Uniondale is hoping to write a similar script East Meadow orchestrated last season in the Nassau Class AAA boys’ soccer playoffs.
The Knights were seeded No. 1 in 2023 but were knocked off in the quarterfinals by the eighth-seeded Jets, who with two more upsets went on to capture their first-ever county title.
“It wasn’t a good feeling to go out early last year as the top seed,” Uniondale’s Junior Valle said.
Valle made sure that didn’t happen this fall. His heroic left-footed blast from about 20 yards with 1:06 remaining in the first overtime beat No. 2 Oceanside, 3-2, in a quarterfinal matchup Wednesday afternoon.
“We know what it feels like to be on the other side of this,” Knights coach Nelson Cohen said. “We’ve had such a difficult season dealing with so many injuries and not having our full team for so many games. The playoffs for us started weeks ago because our backs were against the wall. This feels really good because it was a total team effort.”
The Sailors, who defeated Uniondale 2-1 in the regular-season meeting Sept. 12 on a pair of Franco Visone goals, found themselves in a 2-0 hole less than 10 minutes in this time and played a man down for more than 75 minutes.
Starting goalkeeper Bryan Tirado, a big reason Oceanside finished behind only Plainview in the 13-team conference, was handed a red card after the nearest official to the play ruled he made a save off Raymond Zavala using his hands outside of the box. Backup Collin Schirrmacher was strong in relief, but the Sailors were unable to complete what would have been an amazing comeback.
“I was actually worried when they went down a man,” Cohen said. “Adversity can rally a team and that’s exactly what happened. They gave us everything they had.”
Senior standout defender Dylan Wassenbergh scored on a penalty kick in the 32nd minute to cut the deficit in half. Then the Sailors (7-3-3) pulled even with 35:34 remaining in regulation when Sean Mahoney drilled home a direct kick from 15 yards.
“I’m super proud of the fight the kids showed,” Oceanside coach Patrick Turk said. “To give up two in the beginning and then to get two back down a man, that’s a lot to be proud of. A lot of proud things despite the result.”
Angel Velasquez got the party started early for Uniondale (6-5-2) with a goal in the 4th minute. Zavala scored five minutes later off an assist from Alberto Pineda.
“We really want to go all the way,” Zavala said.
The Knights, who got eight saves from Jorge Martinez, the best of which came on the doorstep against Wassenbergh with just over 10 minutes to go, advanced to face No. 3 Syosset in the semifinals Oct. 29 at Farmingdale State College.
Uniondale defeated Syosset Oct. 10, 3-2, behind a pair of Zavala goals. The winner of the rematch will face Plainview or Massapequa for the title Nov. 3 at Farmingdale State at 4:30 p.m.
