By Anthony Bosco
Two Queens teams, Archbishop Molloy and St. John’s Prep, are vying to repeat as champions this year when the CHSAA varsity soccer season kicks off in both the ‘A’ and ‘B’ leagues this month.
Achbishop Molloy captured the CHSAA state crown a year ago with a thrilling 1-0 win over St. John the Baptist at the United States Merchant Marine academy at Kings Point. This year’s team lost six players from last season’s roster, but head coach Andy Kostell seems more than happy with the group he has returning.
“It’s a good team,” Kostell said. “Because we have a lot of returning players, I personally know their strengths and weakness so we can form together. It’s a very, very deep team. I have a lot of kids who can play.”
Leading the returning players are tri-captains Robbie Sardis, a midfielder who scored the game-winning goal in the state title game and sweepers Nick Kadsanos and Patrick Boyle. Junior goaltender Michael Testa, who recorded the shutout against St. John the Baptist, is also back.
Midfielder Gabriel Ortega, who is in the national pool, midfielder Antonio Trillo, striker Sal Silaco and defender Jason Murphy will also try to lead the Stanners back to the title game.
Molloy has already beaten perennial powerhouse Monsignor Farrell in the pre-season, 5-1. Farrell beat Molloy in the city championship game last year, 4-0.
The Stanners open the league season Thursday against St. Francis Prep.
Holy Cross is also loaded with returning players, but has a new coach in the form of Dominic Cinelli. Cinelli, who coached the junior varsity the past three years and has 16 years of coaching experience under his belt, is taking over for longtime coach Paul Gilvary.
“When you have talent, you should win games,” Cinelli said. “There’s not much pressure that I’m feeling. It’s been pretty much a Holy Cross tradition to go out and win and that’s what I hope to do. It will be hard to follow in Paul’s footsteps, but then I think anyone will have a hard time trying to follow in his footsteps.”
Though the team lost several key players, the Knights will bring back some of the most talented players in the area, including Tahmer Mohamed, Giovani Paredes, Eric DiFulvio, Paul Nitoli, Daniel Cinelli, Marcis Frederic, Anthony Ciano, Bobby Milanovici, Ariel Castelanos, Chris Lupoli and David Cinelli.
“The graduating seniors will be missed, but the talent that is replacing them is quite good. We look forward to a nice season.”
The Knights open up against Xaverian.
St. Francis Prep, another consistently top-flight team, dropped off a bit last season, finishing a distant third behind Molloy and Cross in the Brooklyn/Queens Diocesan and losing in the quarterfinals of the citywide playoffs to Iona Prep.
But head coach Frank Purificato is returning 13 seniors to this year’s team and has high hopes for the Terriers this season.
“I think we can make a nice run this year,” the coach said. “I definitely think we can make some noise.”
Of the four players gone from last year’s team, center-midfielder Rolando Rojas and goalkeeper Danny Torres will be missed most, the coach said. But Christ Herrera, Peter Pavlakas and Mark Martello lead the crop of returning stars who hope to bring Prep back to the top.
“I don’t want to get too confident, but it looks good,” Purificato said. “The kids have been working really, really hard. They want it.”
The St. John’s Prep Red Storm won the ‘B’ city championship a year ago without a single senior on the squad, defeating Moore Catholic, 3-0. It is no surprise that head coach Pat O’Grady expects a solid season out of his squad this year.
“We got all the guys coming back plus a couple of new players, so it looks pretty good,” O’Grady said. “We have a lot of leadership back. That’s going to help a lot.”
Back are goalkeeper Christopher Clarke, defenders Colm Dillon, Earnesto Bencosme, Sebastian Garcia, Ryan Reyes and Eric Mendoza, midfielders Edwin Mondez, Cesar Salguero, Jonathan Guisbert, Omar Rodas and Jospeh Santana and forwards Ferney Ruiz, David Osorno, Stefano Grimaldi, Sal Barone, Anthony Reyes, Lukas Janocinski.
O’Grady is also co-head coaching with Christine Mayer.
Also competing in the ‘B’ league will be Christ the King, Monsignor McClancy, Cathedral Prep, St. Edmund and Bishop Ford.
Monsignor McClancy lost three key players in Giampaolo DiMicco, Chris Megaloudis and Adrian Caballero, who helped lead the team to the city championship in 2000.
“They were the strength of the team for two or three years,” said head coach Gerry O’Riordan. “They were the backbone for me. They will be sorely missed.”
Back for the Crusaders will be senior defenders David Hormaza and Diego Sanchez and junior midfielder Adam Bruneng, but it will be a struggle to compete with the Red Storm.
“It’s going to be a very young team,” O’Riordan said. “If we play together as a team I think we can be very competitive. You never know. It’s going to be difficult competing with [St. John’s Prep]. I think the players I have have a fighting spirit in them and they should hold their own.”
The Christ the King Royals were expected to give St. John’s a run for its money this year with only three seniors being lost, but six additional players will not be returning to the team for various reasons, leaving the Royals to rebuild with mostly new players.
“It’s a rebuilding year for us,” said assistant coach Frank Visone of the team, which lost key players in goalkeeper Luis Ponce, team captain Mociej Siekierski, and Conrad Sczepaniac. “We got other kids. We’re just waiting for team cohesion. The defense is rebuilt but it’s here.”
Forward and team captain Michael Alesilead the returning players, along with fellow captain Anthony Favara.
“We got two weeks,” Visone said of the season opener. “It’s still open to options.”
Cathedral Prep finished 2-8-1 in league play last year, but second-year head coach Neil Francis only graduated two players, meaning the team could be greatly improved this year and poised to take advantage of the weakened teams in the division.
Back are Gary McGurk, John Guerrero, Ferrero Edouard, Kevin McGrath and Marcello Morselli, all of whom should make key contributions for the Crusaders.
Reach Sports Editor Anthony Bosco by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 130.
