From miscues in their own end to a tentative first half to the own goal scored in the final seconds, the Beacon boys soccer team’s season certainly didn’t start out the way the Blue Demons envisioned.
Not much went right in a 3-0 loss to bitter rival and three-time defending city champion Martin Luther King Jr., Wednesday afternoon at Riverside Park in Manhattan.
Junior midfielder Tom Poulos was stoned on a penalty kick that would’ve sliced a two-goal lead in half, sophomore keeper Alex Brown was beaten twice in his Beacon debut, and the back line that included returning seniors starters Jacob Kipnis, Alex Brass, and Alex Schrum was shaky.
“We were very nervous,” Beacon coach Alec Mahrer said.
After a first half in which Beacon (0-1-0) stood around, refused to take chances and let the Knights set the matches’ pace, they found their footing. There were bright spots in the setback. Senior center midfielder Omar Camara was active and precise in his passes. Junior forward Pascal Louis, needed to fill the scoring void left by star Baimba Freeman, created chances.
After Poulos was tripped up in the box by MLK (1-0-0) senior midfielder David Diosa, and was awarded a penalty shot, it seemed Beacon had received the break it needed to get back in the game. But Knights senior keeper Jean Carlo Perez punched away the shot with a dive to his left, and Poulos’s follow soared above the crossbar, in the 64th minute.
Soon thereafter, sophomore midfielder Ryan Cupolo had the best opportunity, a clean look from the left flank 12 yards out, that Perez cleanly absorbed. Poulos went narrowly wide on a set piece earlier in the half.
“We’re not used to playing with each other,” Poulos said. “We’ll get better.”
Clearly, Beacon isn’t the same team that went undefeated in Manhattan A last year, which included two commanding victories over MLK. The Blue Demons were the top seed in the city playoffs and the prohibitive favorite before falling to the Knights in penalty kicks in the final.
The graduation of core seniors Will Congdon (sweeper) Caetano Sanchez (center midfielder), Freeman (striker) and Jesse Toporek (keeper), stripped the Blue Demons of their leaders and difference makers.
“It’s a different team,” Mahrer said. “Last year we were established from the beginning. We had the big guns.”
For that reason, Mahrer welcomed the early-season showdown with MLK, despite a limited number of practices and a few scrimmages.
“It’s perfect starting against King because it’s a test,” he said. “We always pride ourselves on getting better later in the season.”
“I think we gained a lot of confidence,” he later added. “Hopefully we got the mistakes out of our system.”