Riverdale Jackie Dworkin yells in celebration of her NYSAISAA title Sunday. (William Thomas)
Isabella Bertagna jumps into the arms of Rachel Copulsky after winning the NYSAISAA title. (William Thomas)
History repeated itself for Riverdale in the form of a second straight undefeated NYSAISAA crown.
“It feels great and so much better that it’s our second time in a row,” senior forward Isabella Bertagna said. “We always say Riverdale doesn’t teach losing.”
She and her teammates haven’t experienced it at all recently. Bertagna’s 14th-minute goal was all the top-seeded Falcons needed for a 1-0 win over No. 2 Rye Country Day School in the girls soccer NYSAISAA final Sunday night at Manhattanville College in Purchase.
They finished with the same record as last season — 17-0-2 — when they won their first title while going unbeaten. Ranked second in the city by The Post, Riverdale has not lost in their last 38 games.
“It’s so surreal,” said senior midfielder Rachel Copulsky, who immediately called the school’s headmaster, Dominic A.A. Randolph. to relay the good news. “It’s so unbelievable. I’m so happy that this is the way it ended. There is no other way I’d rather go out.”
She helped create the match’s lone goal. Copulsky carried the ball deep down the left side and sent a hard cross into the box. Rye freshman keeper Francesca Venturo made a diving stop, but couldn’t secure the ball. Bertagna easily tapped in the rebound.
Falcons coach Orlando Osorio credited those two and junior Zoe Clark with bringing up the level of play of a relatively young team around them.
“They just rose to such a level that it just put the whole team on their shoulders,” he said. “Everybody else pretty much rallied around them.”
With a lead, the responsibility fell on a young defense, which never played like one this season, led by junior Emily Dann, sophomore Sam Light, freshman Sarah Tiffany and goalkeeper Lindsay Picard. The senior was in just her third game in net, after playing sparingly last season because on an injury to starter Jennifer Kronish.
“At first I’ve been really nervous about it,” Picard said. “I think my team helped me become so comfortable in the position and my defense really stepped it up.”
She made seven saves, including a diving one on a Stephanie Sabatini header to the left post during a Rye (9-4-4) flurry to end the first half. The ball was buried in the Riverdale end over the final four minutes. Rye’s best chance in the second stanza came when Julie Shanus had a breakaway, but fired wide right in the 73rd minute.
“Even until the last second you run into the possibility of it not happening,” Osorio said.
The players said winning a NYSAISAA title was the goal from the minute the season opened, despite losing a large senior group. They didn’t realize they could go unbeaten until they ran through the first half of the Ivy League schedule without a loss.
A 1-1 tie with Dalton, where Copulsky bent in a corner kick in the closing second of regulation, and 2-2 tie against rival Fieldston were the only blemishes. The Falcons beat No. 9 Columbia Prep in the quarterfinals and the Eagles, 1-0, on Copulsky’s overtime penalty kick on their way to the final.
“We are such a close team,” Copulski said. “What we do off the field translates to what we do on the field.”
All they have done is win games and championships.
“We knew how good it felt the first time and we were striving all year to get there again,” Bertagna said. “It feels so much better to get there a second time.”