Mounties Upset Mahopac Indians in First Round

MAHOPAC—After playing a strong regular season, and earning the school’s first home playoff game in some time, this was not the ending the Mahopac High boys soccer team was hoping for.

The eighth-seeded Indians dropped a 1-0 decision to No. 9 Suffern in a Section 1 Class A first-round game last Friday at Mahopac.

The Indians closed their season at 10-5-2. Suffern improved to 12-2-3 and advanced to the quarterfinals.

The wind played a major role in this one, according to Indians coach Chris Emery.

With a strong wind blowing, a goal kick – into the wind, by Indians keeper Adam Basuljevic – died in a gust, and was booted back at him, from nearly 40 yards out, and the wind-aided shot curled its way into the upper corner of the net – and won the game for the Mounties.

The goal was scored by Suffern’s Christian Dominguez, 25:00 into the match.

Mahopac had its chances to respond – with nine shots on goal. But Suffern netminder Jason Dinces stopped them all. Basuljevic finished with four saves in net for Mahopac.

“It was just incredibly bad luck for us,” Emery said. “We did everything we needed to do… we controlled possession, and in the second half we had the ball in their end nearly the entire time. We had a lot of opportunities, it just wouldn’t go into the net. It was ridiculous. Sometimes you can do everything right, and luck is one the other side. It was definitely a disappointing way to end. We had our first home playoff game in a long time, and I felt for the kids.”

Mahopac closed out the regular season the prior Tuesday with a 3-2 loss to Carmel.

Joe Ilardi and Brandon Devlin gave the Rams a 2-0 lead in the first half, before Frank Fonseca got the Indians on the board 9:27 into the second half, off a pass from Renato Chira.

But Carmel got what would turn out to be the game-winner from Sean Gavin at 23:42 of the second half, with the assists going to Devlin. Jesse Chan scored Mahopac’s second goal, from Rob Schiera, with about 10:00 left.

Basuljevic had four saves for Mahopac, and Steve Mazzoni stopped five shots on goal for the Rams (8-7-2).

“We came in a little flat,” Emery said. “Then we made a bad play, and let Ilardi come right down the middle and rip a shot. We never recovered from that.”