Long Island City is moving on to a place it has never been: the quarterfinals of the PSAL Class A playoffs.
The No. 8 Bulldogs defeated No. 9 Susan Wagner, 2-0, in the Class A girls soccer second round Friday at home. Reaching at least the quarterfinals was their goal from the begining of the season after losing in the second round a year ago. LIC, which won its third straight Queens A-V title, was led by junior forward Geraldine Huisa’s two goals.
“Geraldine is amazing,” Long Island City coach Mark Skorupski said. “She is one of the finest athletes I have coached. She always plays aggressively and doesn’t give up. She tends to step up in big games.”
It took just into the eighth minute for Huisa to step up. She headed a corner kick from Jasmine Penuela over the head of Wagner goalkeeper Kim Incontrera just inside the post to give Long Island City (14-0-0) a 1-0 lead and the only goal it would need to make history.
“This is a huge accomplishment for us,” said Huisa, who finished with three shots on goal. “To move up one more level is huge and this is the best thing that could happen to us.”
Huisa struck again in the 38th minute after she was taken down in the Wagner box and awarded a penalty kick. After a few attempts at keeping the ball steady due to the windy conditions, her shot went right off Incontera’s fingertips and through her legs to the back of the net to extend the lead to 2-0.
“I worked on penalty kicks all week,” Huisa said. “When the wind blows the ball away I get out of my groove. I had to have patience and calm down. It was big to add a second goal.”
LIC took the lead into the second half and its defense stepped up, only allowing the Falcons one shot inthe frame on goalkeeper Xenia Bertoni, who finished with three saves. Skorupski moved star forward Alison Dowdle back, having her play midfield and defense.
“Alison was the star of today’s game,” Skorupski said. “She can play any position and is amazing to have. I knew we’d need to be tight defensively so I put her in that spot and she cleared so many balls away for us today.”
Dowdle led the team in goals in the regular season, but the switch to defense didn’t faze her.
“There’s a lot of tension in a big game like this,” Dowdle said. “I had to keep it inside and just play my own game. I love my team and we pulled out a big win today.”
Skorupski named Dowdle his MVP of the game in the postgame team huddle.
“It made me happy to hear Coach say that,” Dowdle said. “It brought tears to my eyes.”
While LIC moves on, Wagner (7-3-3) must look toward next year. The young Falcons were one of the city’s hottest teams coming in. They had gone unbeaten in their last nine games, including ties with PSAL powers Tottenville and McKee/Staten Island Tech.
“My girls just didn’t show up today,” Wagner coach Carleen Rago said. “But we’re still a good team and we made great friendships along the way this season.”
LIC moves on to play top-seed Bronx Science in the quarters Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. at Lehman.
“We’re playing a tough team next week,” Skorupski said. “We look forward to the challenge and will just enjoy this win for now.”