Hobbled Hero

ZACHARY BRAZILLER
When Alyssa Faller showed up for Queens High School of Teaching’s opening-round playoff game, the Tigers could not help but smile.
Faller, the Loyola-bound senior who scored 32 goals as a junior, played in just four regular season contests while resting a severely injured left leg. She was also recently busy tending to her ill father Joe, who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.
“When she came back,” junior midfielder Amanda Viteri recalled, “it was like, ‘Thank you.’ ”
No. 14 QHST is more than Faller, one of five Division I soccer players in the city, though. Last Thursday’s 2-1 overtime win over second-seeded Leon Goldstein, pushing the Bellerose school into their first final this Thursday against No. 4 Lincoln, proved as much.
Favoring the bad wheel, Faller was held scoreless for the first time in four playoff matches. Yet senior Jheanelle Graham got QHST on the board in the sixth minute and junior Kelly Outler, who had moved back to midfield upon Faller’s return, netted the game-winner in the sixth minute of extra time.
“These girls really developed,” Coach Patrick Kehoe said. “From never playing soccer before to scoring goals in overtime to send us the city finals is amazing.”
When it was launched five years ago, Kehoe started a program that won just two games their first year. He inherited athletes, aside from Faller, that were new to the pitch. Many of his players, he said, joined to stay in shape for basketball season. Slowly, however, they grew together, reaching the semifinals last spring and are now in the final.
Of course, Faller, Kehoe said, is a major reason for this run. When she decided to play on the bad wheel, it inspired many of her teammates. When word spread of her father’s terminal illness, it motivated the Tigers even more.
“It means a lot,” Viteri said. “It if was my situation, I wouldn’t play.”
Added Kehoe: “With Alyssa around, everyone plays better. Everyone is more confident. Our passing is crisper, shooting is crisper.”
While her absence likely cost QHST their second consecutive Queens B-V division crown and a high seed in the playoffs, it enabled her teammates to learn to play without her. Therefore, when Faller was not a factor in a sub-par second half, Outler stepped to the forefront with the winning goal.
“I feel like we are [meant to win],” Outler said. “We have to take it all the way.”