Chaminade boys soccer suffers stunning defeat to Fordham Prep in CHSAA state final
Blake Donahue of Chaminade makes a play against Fordham Prep during the CHSAA state boys soccer championship at St. John’s on Sunday. Credit: Derrick Dingle /Derrick Dingle
For more than 78 minutes of Sunday night’s CHSAA state boys soccer championship game, it seemed destined that Chaminade would ultimately prevail. The Flyers were constantly in possession and on attack in Fordham Prep’s end of the field. And the Rams had spent virtually the entire time in defensive stance, managing only a single shot on goal.
However, the evening ended not with Chaminade holding the prize aloft, but rather in tears of disbelief.
Fordham Prep, which played the unorthodox defense-oriented strategy by design, broke the scoreless tie with 1:53 let in regulation. Noah Lee got taken down from behind and got a free kick from the left wing from about 12 yards out and went for the back post, Brayden Bathgate headed the ball back against the grain and Jude Grbesa redirected it with his left foot into the Flyers goal to give the Rams a 1-0 victory at St. John’s University’s Belson Stadium.
“It’s heartbreaking to have it end like that,” Chaminade senior Blake Donahue said. “We are the better team. We can score more goals than they can. And so they just fell back and waited for an opportunity . . . We were really confident coming in here. How this happened is just terrible.”
Fordham Prep (16-1-1) is state champion for the second time and first since 2011. Chaminade, which arrived Sunday ranked No. 4 nationally by United Soccer Coaches and with only a loss to No. 1-ranked St. Benedict’s Prep (N.J.), finished 17-2-1.
“They played to absorb our pressure and hope to get a couple of counter attacks and get a free kick or two,” Flyers coach Brian Anselmo said. “They did and they scored — credit to them.”
In the first 20 minutes, Chaminade got four good opportunities and couldn’t convert. Their best chance came when Jack Dorsey got into a one-on-one situation with Rams goalie Jack McInnis and made a splendid move to get around him and take a shot. Dorsey put both hands to his head in disappointment when it went wide to the right.
Chaminade never stopped on the offensive, but the Rams all fell back and created an unusual amount of traffic for the Flyers to negotiate.
“In the first 20-25 minutes, we played really well but weren’t finding the goal,” Anselmo said. “We let that bother us a little bit and got away from what we normally do. We had most of the possessions and we had most of the opportunities, but we didn’t create the kind of opportunities we’re used to creating.”
Fordham Prep took only two shots in the game. The first came in the 67th minute and resulted in Flyers goalie Keegan Portsmore making an adroit save. The second was the game-winner.
“I’ve been telling the kids for weeks now that we've had a successful season, regardless of what happens, but how far we take it comes in the playoffs,” Anselmo said. “The schedule we played, the teams we beat and the kind of soccer we played, I’m proud of all of it. Losing the last game is frustrating and leaves an empty feeling, but it doesn't take away the great things that kids have accomplished.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.