Garnets Defeat Gorton 6-0 in Class A Play-in Game

By Mitch Silver

The Gorton Boys’ Soccer team entered John Nugent Stadium October 20 with an 8-7 regular-season record. The Wolves were the No. 18 seed in the Class A Sectional playoffs, and thus had to compete in a play-in game to qualify for the regular draw. Rye was an only slightly higher No. 15 seed, thanks to its 8-6-2 record. The winner would play Class A’s No. 2 seed, Somers, just 24 hours later.

In the end, the game was no contest. The Garnets controlled the ball in Gorton’s half of the field for most of the game, using deft touches to pass the ball around in tight spaces. They scored with twelve and a half minutes gone when junior midfielder Henry Field got the ball to senior Zach Levitt, who put it away.

Eighteen minutes later, Levitt scored again, rolling a ball past the Gorton keeper’s right. Less than six minutes later, Levitt almost had a third when he turned and fired just over the crossbar. The Garnets did tally a third goal when senior midfielder Tommy Dore scored with 90 seconds left in the half.

The second half was much like the first. Head Coach Jared Small substituted freely, and Rye had a couple of near misses: senior defenseman Ryan Kovacs came closest, just missing heading in the ball at the right goalpost. Midway through the half, Levitt suffered a serious leg cramp and lay on the ground for five minutes. After he was helped off the field, senior forward Devan Patel scored off a corner kick with 17:45 left in the game. A minute later, junior midfielder Patrick Quinn scored off the rebound of a long shot from outside the box.

At the ten-minute mark, junior netminder Kyan Cox replaced starter Philip Hovers in goal. Seconds later, Patel scored the team’s sixth and final goal on an assist from sophomore forward Tommy Broderick. Cox had his first touch of the ball moments later. It was a two-footed save that kept a clean sheet for the Garnets.

Coach Small was asked about his team’s up-and-down campaign. “Well, we had injuries to two of our three best players. And…we played some awfully good teams.”

They played another one up at Somers October 21, post-press time.