Seawolves Lead the Pack – Looking to Make a Splash at Playoffs

All was well at Adelphi University on a brisk April day this past Saturday, that is, until the Stony Brook University Club Soccer team stepped onto campus. The Seawolves were going into their last game of the regular season and were feeling eager to add one more win to their record. Team members walked onto Adelphi’s Motamed Field looking for redemption after a tragic 2-2 tie that plagued Stony Brook’s near perfect record this past fall.

As the game was about to start, a wave of motivation passed through the Seawolves as club president and team captain David Song huddled in the group for some words of inspiration. “This is it guys. This is the game that decides our season, leave it all out on the field!” The Seawolves knew what they had to do.

At the sound of the whistle, Stony Brook immediately took control of the game. Within 10 minutes, the Seawolves had Adelphi chasing wave after wave of attack by the Stony Brook offense. It wasn’t too long after when Stony Brook’s Daiki Nakamura struck gold. In the 14^th minute, the ball found its way to senior defender Josef Gaster who made a run into Adelphi’s defensive third. With one look, Gaster floated a ball into the six yard box which was clumsily cleared by Adelphi’s goalie. The spinning ball found the waiting foot of Nakamura who blasted the ball past the unexpected keeper to make it 1-0.

“That was a world class finish!” exclaimed junior midfielder Philip Borzumato as he witnessed the “shoe shine” celebration take place at midfield.

It was long before Nakamura found the back of the net once again. At the 24^th minute mark, play started to build up from the defense as outside back Stephen Georgilis sent a long pass towards a streaking Jimmy Magana down the left flank. Magana played a low cross into the box which was first dummied by forward David Song which threw the Adelphi defense for a loop. The confused defenders were only able to pull themselves together in time to witness Nakamura tuck another one in with a one-time finish to make it 2-0.

The last Stony Brook goal came from a corner kick at the 35^th minute of the match. Freshman midfielder Tye Petrotta stepped up to take the corner on the left side. With three crashing red jerseys, Petrotta saw where the opportunities lie. He placed a high floater into the top of the six yard box which was miscleared off of an Adelphi defender’s chest. Sophomore center back Chris Koumas pounced on this opportunity and performed a “tricycle kick” to blast the ball out of the air and into the upper corners of the net, taking the Seawolves to a 3-0 lead. The halftime whistle blew shortly after.

The second half was more of the same as the Seawolves continued to dominate possession of the ball. The Stony Brook defense gave a stellar performance as any Adelphi attack was neutralized almost instantaneously. Goalies Billy Blaine and Kevin Mulder together held a shutout for Stony Brook. The game was unfortunately called prematurely due to Adelphi’s Varsity Lacrosse team needing to use the field for a pre-game tanning session before their match three hours later.

Stony Brook looks to finish first in their conference and hopes to make a real impact this weekend in Lancaster, PA to bring the title of “Best in Region One” back to Long Island.

Stony Brook 3 – Adelphi 0