Sports
Seaford Boys Soccer Rolls to Home Win Over Valley Stream North
The Vikings collected a 2-0 shut out against visiting Spartans.
The boys soccer team has found early success in 2011 with consecutive wins, first against Valley Stream South last Saturday and most recently a 2-0 win under the lights on Wednesday night at home against Valley Stream North (1-1-0, 0-1-0).
After a tough loss to host Carle Place in the Carle Place Tournament last Friday, the Vikings defeated Valley Stream South 1-0 and then Valley Stream North behind a pair of goals from Ray Schaeffner and Mike Vietri.
“It was a battle, a good game. I expect nothing less,” said Seaford head coach Ralph Pascarella. “They were very good and talented, but we figured out a way. We got a good first goal and just continued to work.”
Find out what's happening in Wantagh-Seafordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Following a near goal off of a free kick from D.J. Rome in the 14th minute, Valley Stream North goalkeeper Alec D’Aulisa took down Schaeffner to set up a penalty kick. Schaeffner, who scored his teams’ lone goal in the first win, stepped up to the ball with confidence and put a shot in the top-right corner to give the Vikings a 1-0 lead in the 21st minute.
“I thought we played well and we passed the ball well and just finished,” said Schaeffner. “We were beating them to every 50-50 ball, and we just played hard.”
Find out what's happening in Wantagh-Seafordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Valley Stream North created multiple opportunities to try and find an equalizing goal late in the half. With high-pressure defense led by Jimmy Roell and Brian McHugh, as well as leadership goalkeeping from Bryan Graziose, who finished with 11 saves, Seaford went into halftime with a lead.
The visting Spartans provided similar pressure in the second half, but a breakaway goal by Vietri in the 55th minute put Seaford in front 2-0. Valley Stream North nearly cut the score in half, but Rome helped deflect a shot wide on a seemingly wide open net with Graziose out of position on the play.
The 2-0 score would hold up as Seaford displayed control in the midfield, winning the majority of jump balls, and playing shutdown defense on a tough Valley Stream squad.
“We kept things simple, we win balls, step up a little bit and just play,” said Pascarella. “The last two weeks, we have been getting better at working together.”
Seaford (2-1-0, 1-0-0) will go on the road this upcoming Friday to North Shore (0-2-0, 0-1-0) for a league match-up set to start at 4:30 p.m.
