Greenport's Daniel Rivas (4) plays the ball in the second half during the state regional boys soccer final between Greenport and North Salem on Saturday Nov 9, 2024 at Diamond in the Pines. Credit: Bob Sorensen
It’s the end of the road for Greenport boys soccer.
Greenport fell to Section I’s North Salem, 6-0, at Diamond in the Pines in Coram Saturday afternoon in the Class C Southeast Regional state final.
The win sends North Salem (15-2-3) to the state semifinal round to face the winner of Section X’s Lisbon and Section II’s Loudonville Christian.
“We played well, early on. I thought we were going toe-to-toe,” coach Greg Dlhopolsky said. “We just fell apart at the end.”
A four-goal second half, spurred by North Salem center back Max Cotrone’s hat trick, put the game out of reach before the final whistle. Greenport (7-7-2) held its own in the first half, even as North Salem’s Sean Randall converted a penalty kick in the 24th minute.
But it was the second goal that changed the body language of Greenport as North Salem midfielder Ryan Vorfi danced around two defenders to take a shot, which deflected right to the foot of forward Nicholas Naber for a clean finish with 28 seconds left in the first half.
“It felt like the second goal right before halftime was a breaking point,” Dlhopolsky said. “It took a lot of the wind out of our sails.”
Greenport had just one shot on goal throughout the 80 minutes, coming from a first-half free kick. The lack of offense didn’t help a defense that already faced a tall task of stopping North Salem, which won Section I’s Class C title with another decisive 6-0 victory over Tuckahoe on Nov. 2.
“This loss, it’s rough,” senior captain Daniel Rivas said. “It was just miscommunications on the defensive end … if we communicated better maybe it would be different, but it is what it is.”
The defense was constantly fending off attacks as senior goalie Kal-El Marine did his best with his seven saves. Greenport allowed eight corner kicks, which led to all three of Cotrone’s goals.
When it came to describing this Greenport team, Rivas used an adjective that fit well with the effort the center back showed to win a myriad of aerial challenges throughout the match.
“Unyielding,” Rivas said. “Despite whatever adversary we faced, we had the resilience to fight.”
Michael Sicoli covers high school sports for Newsday. He graduated from Quinnipiac in 2022 and left with a master’s degree in sports journalism in 2023.
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