Elmira District Boys Soccer

www.stargazette.com - Staff Report - 8:34 PM, Nov 2, 2013

ONEONTA — It was too much Amir Omar for Elmira.

The Ithaca junior forward scored three goals Saturday to lead the Little Red past the Express 5-0 in the Section 4 Class AA boys soccer championship at Wright National Fields.

Ithaca (12-3) moves on to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association playoffs. The Little Red will face the Section 1 champ at 1:15 p.m. Wednesday at a site to be determined.

“We put the trophy in the trophy case,” Ithaca senior midfielder and co-captain Nicholas Gualtieri said. “This feels great.”

Gualtieri collected a goal and an assist in the second half. Mason Wolff added a second-half goal that made it 3-0.

Omar scored twice in the first half off assists from Tristan Cornell-Roberts to give the Little Red a 2-0 lead at intermission. Cornell-Roberts finished with three assists.

Ithaca coach Gilbert Antoine said the game went as he planned it after he spoke with several key players before the game, including Omar.

“We needed some players to deliver,” Antoine said. “This is a young team.”

Elmira (8-8-1) had the best chance to score early when Kyle Johnson took the ball down the right side. His kick was stopped, and a follow-up header sailed over the net.

Shortly after Omar’s first goal at the five-minute mark, Johnson fed Andrew Field, whose shot from the middle was blocked by an Ithaca defender.

Johnson later had a good opportunity in close that Little Red goalie Geoffrey Twardokus made a save on. Twardokus turned away four tries to earn the shutout.

Elmira coach Derek Hamilton believes his team did not play badly. The Express finished with a 10-7 edge in shots.

“I don’t feel the game was as lopsided as the final score,“ he said.

Hamilton also cited Gualtieri as the Express’ key tormenter.

“He was their catalyst. They filter the ball through him,“ Hamilton said.

Gualtieri said his job is to set up the scorers, though he made it a 4-0 game with a goal with 20 minutes to play. A short while after he assisted on Omar’s third goal to close out the offense.

“We work the offense through the midfielders,” Gualtieri explained.

Ithaca was able to handle the wet grass field at the former National Soccer Hall of Fame site. Antoine said he worked his team on grass to get them used to the slower surface than the artificial turf the Little Red usually competes on.

Meanwhile, Hamilton recalled how the Express overcame a slow start to reach its first sectional boys soccer final since Elmira Free Academy and Southside merged their sports programs for the 2011-12 school year.

“I‘m proud of these guys,“ he said. “We were 2-4-1 at one point.“

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Top-ranked Ithaca tops Elmira, 5-0

By Shawn Vargo svargo@the-leader.com - Posted Nov. 2, 2013 @ 8:01 pm

ONEONTA – Led by a hat trick by Amir Omar, Ithaca downed Elmira 5-0 to win the Section IV, Class AA championship Saturday at Wright National Fields.

Omar opened the scoring with his first goal early in the contest, before leading a three-goal second half by the Little Red (12-3).

"I don’t think we lacked for effort," Elmira head coach Derek Hamilton said. "We didn’t play poorly. Ithaca just capitalized on the opportunities they had and we didn’t."

In the game’s opening 10 minutes, Omar got to a through ball and found the back of the net to give Ithaca a 1-0 lead.

"That put us behind the 8-ball early," Hamilton said. "Before that, I felt like we had four or five opportunities to take the lead in the first 10 minutes. Their keeper made some great saves."

Midway through the opening half, Mason Wolff got loose on the left side of the field, drew Express keeper Pat Coster out of the net, then got off a shot that got through and went in before another Elmira defender could keep it from crossing the goal line.

Along with Omar’s two scores in the second half, the Little Red also got a goal from Nick Gaultieri.

While it wasn’t a story-book ending for the Express (8-8-1), the team closed out the season in strong fashion to reach the title game.

"I’m proud of this team," Hamilton said. "We started the season at 2-4-1. A lot of teams would have cashed in their chips at that point. This group went out and won six of its last nine games.

"They played their best soccer at the end of the season."

Written by Joe Mink - www.stargazette.com - 8:25 PM, Oct 23, 2013

ELMIRA — Beating the same team a third time in one year is never easy.

Elmira was able to accomplish that against Horseheads, claiming a 1-0 overtime victory in the Section 4 Class AA boys soccer semifinals Wednesday at Southside High.

Curtis Grant scored off Logan Brimmer’s assist 9 minutes, 7 seconds into the extra session to help the Express (8-7-1) advance to the sectional championship, where it will face Ithaca on Nov. 2 at Wright National Fields in Oneonta.

The Express will try to keep Ithaca from doing to it what it did to Horseheads — win three straight meetings.

The Little Red defeated Elmira 3-0 on Oct. 2 and 2-1 on Sept. 12.

“We played better than that,” Grant said of the 3-0 contest.

Elmira coach Derek Hamilton’s take: “We know how hard it is to beat a team a third time in a season.”

Yet the Express pulled it off against the Blue Raiders (5-8-2) after Grant rushed up the middle, took a feed from Brimmer on the left side and pushed the ball into the net.

“I just broke through and finished,” Grant explained.

Pat Coster earned the shutout by making seven saves for the Express. Rhett Seeley also turned away seven shots for Horseheads.

Elmira controlled the ball for most of the second half and the overtime.

Grant came close earlier in overtime with a penalty kick a little less than six minutes in. The ball sliced into the left outside netting.

Horseheads threatened when Foster Clark fed Jose Garcia on the left side just before Grant’s game winner. That attempt sailed just over the crossbar.

“We had a few chances. We didn’t convert when we needed to,” Horseheads coach Mark Mucci said.

The Blue Raiders played evenly with the Express in the first half, and Mucci thought his team had the edge.

“We controlled the ball,” he said.

Their closest try may have come on a 60-yard free kick by Marc Andrien 10½ minutes into the game. It was just a bit high.

Hamilton thought the familiarity of the two teams and what was at stake may have affected how the the game was played.

“It was two teams trying not to make a mistake,” he said. “In the second half we had some opportunities, but there were only one or two great chances.”

The Express had a tough time with Horseheads each time out, winning 2-1 in overtime on Sept. 25 and 1-0 on Sept. 6.

Close games told the tale for the the Blue Raiders this season, as Mucci said his team lost six times by one goal.

“The record doesn’t show it, but we played well,” he said, adding that lack of offense held Horseheads back. “It was the bane of our existence.”

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 Elmira boys top Horseheads in OT

By Shawn Vargo svargo@the-leader.com
Posted Oct. 23, 2013 @ 8:02 pm  

ELMIRA – It took nearly 90 minutes before Elmira’s Curtis Grant scored the game’s only goal in overtime to lift the No. 2 Express to a 1-0 win over Horseheads in a Section IV, Class AA semifinal at Southside High School Wednesday.

The golden goal came with 5:53 remaining in the first 15-minute sudden death overtime period after the Express and third-seeded Blue Raiders battled to a scoreless tie in regulation. Grant was the leader of a three-on-two breakaway in the Horseheads zone after taking a pass from teammate Logan Brimmer. His shot slipped by Blue Raiders keeper Rhett Seeley to end the contest.

"I think it was very fitting that a soft goal was the game-winner," Elmira head coach Derek Hamilton said. "It was kind of a sloppy game by both teams."

The nine minutes of overtime actually had three of the better offensive opportunities of the game. With 9:09 left Grant was just wide with a free kick outside the 18, before Horseheads’ Jose Garcia sent a shot just wide of the net 1:30 later.

"We had our chances," Horseheads head coach Mark Mucci said. "We just needed it to be a foot more in.

"We had opportunities, but we just didn’t convert when we needed to. This is our sixth one-goal loss. We’ve struggled finishing."

In the first half, it was the Blue Raiders that controlled things offensively. Horseheads outshot Elmira 5-3 over the first 40 minutes. Express keeper Pat Coster needed just one save to keep the game scoreless, however, as most of the shots were high or wide.

One of Horseheads’ top opportunities came with 4:10 remaining in the half, when Chris Bankiatis took a feed from Ben Morse, but his shot was blasted over the cross bar.

Elmira’s best chance in the opening half came with 2:20 to play when Brimmer had what appeared to be a good look at the net, only to have Horseheads defender Gerardo Nunez block it.

The half ended with Bankiatis nearly floating a 35-yard shot into the goal, but Coster was there to tip it over the cross bar.

The second half saw Elmira pick its game up offensively. Kyle Johnson led the charge with back-to-back shots near the midway point of the period. His second shot was deflected by Seeley and cleared by a defenseman before any Express players could converge on the ball near the open net.

Elmira nearly broke the scoreless tie with 13:40 left in regulation when Grant spun a corner kick through the Horseheads defenders and Seeley, but no Express players were in a position to punch it in.

"We definitely had our opportunities in the second half," Hamilton said.

Hamilton lauded his defensive unit for playing strong throughout the contest.

"Our defense has been our strength," he said. "When we moved Caleb Johnson to defense, it changed our fortune.

"I also think that Joey Nugent is just phenomenal. He’s the best defender in the league."

Coster finished with four saves in the game, while Seeley stopped six for the Blue Raiders.

Elmira will travel to Oneonta to face No. 1 Ithaca on Nov. 2.

Elmira Scoring - Grant (1-0), Brimmer (0-1)

Shots/Corners - Elmira (12-8), Horseheads (10-4)

Saves - Elmira (Coster - 5), Horseheads (Seeley - 7)

Elmira scored 10-seconds into the match on a Kyle Johnson goal to set the tone in a 6-1 victory over the Binghamton Patriots on Friday night at Elmira Southside High School.  The goal was the fastest score in Elmira Soccer history.

Curtis Grant lofted a perfectly placed ball over the heads of the Binghamton back four.  Johnson raced past the defense, stuck a shot off the goal keeper, which in turn rebounded back off Johnson for the goal.

Grant would go on to score the next three goals for Elmira, which lead 5-0 at halftime.

Elmira has won four of their last five matches and hosts the Vestal Bears on Monday after at SHS.

Elmira Scoring - Grant (3-1), K. Johnson (1-0), Halperin (1-1), Marvin (1-0), Tiffany (0-1), Cain (0-1)

Binghamton Scoring - Va (1-0)

Shots/Corners - Elmira (26-6), Binghamton (2-0)

Saves - Elmira (Castiglione - 0, O. Mason - 2), Binghamton (Virgen - 18)

The Elmira Express Boys soccer team took down the Tigers of Union-Endicott 2-0 on Friday night for their third consecutive win. The victory assures Elmira of a sectional birth in Class AA.

After a dominant first half in which Elmira had a number of quality opportunities, the Express finally broke the deadlock with a flick-on head goal from junior midfielder Kyle Johnson, off a great feed from senior center back Joe Nugent.  Johnson's goal was his 4th of the season and came about 15 minutes into the 2nd half.  Less than two minutes later, sophomore midfielder Reilly Collins struck a left-footed ball that lofted over the goalkeeper's head for a 2-0 advantage.  The goal was Collins' 2nd of the season, with this first effort coming in the previous match.  Elmira would go on to produce more opportunities, but the solid play of junior goalkeeper Pat Coster would prove all they would need for the remainder of the match.

With the victory, Elmira improves to 5-4-1 on the season and will host Ithaca this coming Wednesday.

Elmira Scoring - K. Johnson (1-0), Collins (1-0), Nugent (0-1)

Shots/Corners - Elmira (11-2), Union-Endicott (4-2)

Saves - Elmira (Coster - 4), Union-Endicott (Habeny - 7)

www.stargazette.com - 10:14 PM, Sep 25, 2013

Curtis Grant scored eight minutes into sudden-death overtime Wednesday to give the Elmira boys soccer team a 2-1 victory over Horseheads in a Southern Tier Athletic Conference game at Southside High School.

Reilly Collins scored the tying goal for Elmira (4-4-1) with about 13 minutes left in regulation off an assist from Kyle Johnson.

Max Dandrifrosse scored a first-half goal for Horseheads (3-5-1).

“We’re playing some of our best soccer right now,” Elmira coach Derek Hamilton said. “We’ve been able to string a couple of wins together where we were a little unlucky at the beginning of the season.”

Elmira Scoring - Collins (1-0), Grant (1-0), K. Johnson (0-1)

Horseheads Scoring - Dandrifrosse (1-0)

Shots/Corners - Elmira (7-6), Horseheads (7-2)

Saves - Elmira (Coster - 5), Horseheads (Seeley - 5)