By Dylan Butler
Friday night, he found out how.
After Bayside defeated Beacon, 3-0, in the second round of the PSAL playoffs, Corrado learned the Commodores garnered the No. 4 seed for Monday's quarterfinals following the seeding committee's meeting Friday night at PSAL headquarters in Long Island City.
Bayside (10-1-1) will host Bronx A-II champion and last year's PSAL 'A' runner-up No. 5 Taft (11-0-2) at 1 p.m.
If the Commodores defeat Taft, they would likely play defending champion and top-seeded Martin Luther King (14-0) in the semifinals Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. MLK hosts No. 8 Newcomers (9-2-1) Monday at Central Park at 2:30 p.m.
Had Bayside, winners of the PSAL 'B' title last year, defeated Bowne and gone undefeated, the Commodores would have probably been seeded second or third behind MLK, thereby playing in the bracket opposite the Knights.
“As much as that loss hurt us in the seeding, it helped us in other ways, to reorganize and shake up the group,” Corrado said. “But to be seeded with teams like MLK in the top four is awesome.”
While a Bayside/MLK semifinal matchup is very intriguing, don't think for one second that Bayside is looking past a very tough Taft team.
“That's been our approach all year, to never look past our next game,” Corrado said. “We did that once and that's why we lost.”
Newcomers head coach Louis Llull would like nothing better than to ruin that potential semifinal match as his Lions look to play the role of spoiler Monday. After battling for respect throughout the season and finishing second in Queens A West behind Newtown, Newcomers again feels slighted.
For a second straight year, the Lions are the No. 8 seed and face MLK, although Llull believes the result will be a lot closer than last year's 5-1 loss.
“I was a little upset in the beginning,” Llull said. “We were the same seed last year and we have a better record this year so I thought we'd have a higher seed. But we have to do what we have to do. We have a better team this year and I think we're going to give them a better game.”
Maybe the biggest surprise of the night was the absence of Newtown from the seeding selections as the Pioneers, who would have been a unanimous pick for the No. 2 seed, fell 2-1 in penalty kicks to Monroe in the second round Friday.
The committee, comprised of Soccer Commissioner Mike Turo, Soccer Assigner Alan Wharton, PSAL representatives Lori Benson and Roger Bradley as well as local newspaper reporters, awarded Tottenville (10-0-2) the No. 2 seed. The Pirates will face No. 7 Wingate (10-1-1). Rounding out the A division seeds for the quarterfinals, No. 3 Madison (11-0-1) takes on No. 6 Monroe (10-2-2) Monday at noon.
In the B division, Springfield Gardens (11-2) was the only Queens team left standing after both Edison and Campus Magnet were upset in the first round Thursday. The Golden Eagles garnered the No. 4 seed and will host fifth-seeded Bronx Science (8-2-1) Tuesday at 2:30 p.m.
The top seed in the B division went to Brooklyn B North champion Brooklyn Tech (12-0-1) which hosts out-bracket winner No. 8 Erasmus (8-2). Manhattan Center (12-0-3) is the No. 2 seed and hosts No. 7 John Jay (8-3-1) and No. 3 Lehman (10-1-1) is home for sixth-seeded A.P. Randolph (9-3-3).
