By Jaclyn Marr and Joseph Staszewski
Francis Lewis was less than a minute away from a trip to the championship game, but that proved to be just enough time for its hopes to be dashed.
Bronx Science’s Maya Greenfield was left wide up on a corner kick and scored from the left side to send the game into overtime. She later tallied the winner in the extra session to hand seventh-seeded Lewis a 4-3 defeat in a PSAL Class AA girls’ soccer semifinal game on Randall’s Island Tuesday. The No. 3 Wolverines beat Lewis 3-1 in last year’s final four and ended the Patriots 12-game winning streak.
“This game was suspense all the way through,” first-year Lewis coach Eleni Sotiriou said. “The girls pushed through. After our first goal, the other team came back and scored twice. We came back in the second half even stronger. We knew we needed more goals to advance.”
Lewis (14-2-0) took a 1-0 lead on a goal from Jacklyn Lada, but Bronx Science (14-3-0) rallied thanks to a Meleni Rahaman goal of an assist from Greenfield.
Rahaman scored again on another assist from Greenfield, to make it 2-1 heading into the half. The Lewis defense, led by Sarafina Smith, made things tough for Bronx Science after that.
April Cabral and Nancy Hernandez pushed the Lewis offense forward and Samantha Margolis notched a goal off an assist from Lada to tie the score at 2-2 early in the second half. Margolis scored again in the 68th minute to put Lewis up 3-2, but they could not hold the lead. A chance to play for a title must wait for another year.
“I’m very proud of my girls and I think we did the best we could have,” Sotiriou said “Next year, we are going to keep doing what we’re doing and tweak the little things. Our final goal is the finals.”
Commodores fall to Beacon in penalty kicks: Bayside couldn’t build off of its upset of city power Martin Luther King Jr., again having to endure a tough semifinal defeat.
The Commodores and No. 5 Beacon were scoreless through 100 minutes of soccer in regulation and overtime before the Blue Demons won 4-1 in penalty kicks in the PSAL Class A boys soccer playoffs on Randall’s Island on Tuesday.
“It’s tough to bring it down to PKs and lose that way, but that game could have gone on all day. I thought both teams were defensively as tight as could be,” Bayside coach Joe Corrado said.
Bayside (10-3-3), which fell 1-0 to Susan Wagner in last year’s final four, bested top-seed MLK 2-1 in the quarterfinals on Oct. 29. Christopher Li and Louis Mendez each scored first-half goals and Julian Rodriguez made 12 saves.
“Beating MLK is great, but they wanted to go all the way,” the coach said.
Beacon goalie Carter Dutton Kneaves kept them from doing so. He stopped two of Bayside’s shots in the shootout, including a diving save on the first attempt by Emmanuel Karavangelas. Corrado felt that had no effect on the way his kids shot after that against Beacon (15-1-1).
“It’s a matter of inches some times,” Corrado said. “The goalie came up with two good saves.”
Late Grand Street goal stops Aviation in semifinals: Aviation’s reign as city champions ended two wins shy of being extended for another year.
Despite a superb effort from goalie Andy Lucero to keep his team in the game, the No. 3-seeded Flyers scored just once in a 2-1 loss to No. 7 Grand Street in the semifinals on Tuesday. Aviation’s goal came on an Elmir Macki penalty kick in the 62nd minute.
“Three or four shots that could have been a goal he saved those,” Aviation coach Mario Cotumaccio said of Lucero’s effort. “The one that went in cost us and cost us badly.”
Grand Street led 1-0 in the ninth minute on a goal from Akeil Harper. The game could have gotten away from Aviation after the break had it not been for Lucero’s heroics in net. He made a leaping save on a shot by Anthony Herbert, stepped in front of a header by Malik Duba Martinez and punched a shot by star Briail Wilson George over the crossbar.
The Wolves scored the winner in the 76th minute when Lucero fully extended himself to make a leaping save, but couldn’t fully control the ball. It fell right to Grand Street’s Ossama Diaby, who scored to the lower right corner.
“We just showed up flat today,” Cotumaccio said. “We didn’t come to win.”
