Molloy loses in state finals

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. - Archbishop Molloy head coach Andy Kostel, in what he later characterized as “discussing how to attack the second half,” flailed his arms at his huddled team. He spoke to his players for all 10 minutes of halftime, and he spoke to a team in a desperate and unfamiliar position.
They were losing 2-0. Not since their September 23 loss to Iona Prep - 3-0, less than halfway into the regular season - had their prospects looked so dire.
But this was the state final, and St. Anthony’s was not your ordinary opponent. Ranked second nationally in the NSCAA/Adidas poll, the Friars (South Huntington, Long Island) spent their season ceding no losses and only one tie over the course of 22 games. They did not lose on Sunday, November 9, either, ending Molloy’s playoff run by the score of 4-1.
“They’re a very good team and a very good program,” Kostel said. “Most of the first half, their attempts [on goal] were really physical attempts.”
“I think every player on their team is a very good player,” junior forward Gregory Davis said.
The Friars’ calling card is ball control, and they showed off their well-timed passes and everybody-up, point-guard offense for most of the contest. Proof of their possession is in the fact that Stanners fans screamed every time Molloy had the ball on offense in the second half. Those opportunities were limited, and most of them were not fulfilled.
With seconds left in the first half, Davis ran down a ball in the left corner and chipped it to fellow junior Patrick Memi, who could not crane his neck in time and popped a header over the crossbar. Halfway through the second period, Davis pulled away from a pair of St. Anthony’s defenders and lobbed the ball too high over the approaching goalkeeper’s head.
Davis finally broke through on a headed-in cross from senior teammate Peter Levantis, with 7:17 left.
But by then the score was 3-0. St. Anthony’s opened its assault with a penalty shot by senior midfielder Mike Valencia, tripped in the box in the third minute. A half-hour later, senior midfielder Greg Mallia received a classy through ball and scored at close range.
In the 62nd minute, sophomore midfielder Henry Tirado capped a succession of shots and deflections - Molloy junior keeper Joe Ruocco, unscathed during the city playoffs, had left his line and was now on the wrong side of the ball - by finally striking the Friars’ third goal into the net.
By the time St. Anthony’s senior forward Chris Durant added one more in the 79th minute, it was obvious the Stanners’ season was ending with a loss. But throughout the contest, Molloy played hard. In the first half, sophomore Sebastian Altomarino made a flashy defensive play, tripping up a hard-charging St. Anthony’s attacker in the Molloy box. In the second, Ruocco sprinted to the front of the penalty area and slid under a St. Anthony’s forward, stopping him mid-breakaway and coming up with the ball.
“We showed we were never giving up,” Kostel said. “This team doesn’t die. We’ll fight for whatever we have left.”
Davis, in particular, was on the receiving end of numerous hard tackles but propped himself right up each time.
“I just want to play the game,” Davis said. “They want to knock me down, that’s just part of the game.”
His lack of retribution brought back memories of Molloy’s city semifinal victory on October 28, when senior captain Andrew Rodriguez, returning from an ankle injury, responded to St. Peter’s junior Stephen Caifa’s late, hard tackle with fisticuffs. He received a red card and was suspended for two games, activated just in time for the state championship. Kostel called the fracas “the only tarnishment of our season.”
Although Davis responded differently, his second-half goal, lost in a barrage of St. Anthony’s strikes, will probably not be among the images most remembered by Molloy and its supporters in the off-season. Remembered instead will be Glenn Whelan sliding toward the bleachers on his knees after scoring against St. Peter’s, Patrick O’Grady’s close-range blast that took the city title from Fordham Prep, and the post-game celebrations at Belson Stadium at St. John’s.
Let us not forget, either, the heart-stopping victory that put Molloy in the state finals to begin with - Friday, November 7’s win over Iona Prep, prolonged by a tying goal with 69 seconds left and ultimately won in a penalty shootout.
“Friday was very emotional,” Kostel said. “We talked [at practice, in the rain, the next day]. The things we did, you’d have to be a Molloy player to understand.”
On Sunday, he expressed his pride for a team of “great kids who care about their team, care about their school.”
Molloy last won the state CHSAA title in 2004. Previously, the Stanners’ record in the state title game included two losses (1996, 1997) and one victory (2001).