Luke Bradley helps Half Hollow Hills West win a close one after scary injury to goaltender Marcus Degregorio
Half Hollow Hills West celebrates a 1-0 win over Amityville in a Suffolk League VI boys soccer game in Amityville on Thursday. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
Luke Bradley has envisioned himself doing great things on a soccer field. He just never expected them to come under the circumstances he and his Half Hollow Hills West boys soccer teammates encountered on Thursday afternoon in their 1-0 Suffolk VI win over archrival Amityville.
Less than five minutes had elapsed when all at Lou Howard Field were brought to stunned silence at the sight of Hills West starting goalie Marcus Degregorio laying motionless in the goal mouth moments after repelling a shot.
Amityville’s John Arrango had bent a free kick from about 20 yards out at the goal. Degregorio stopped it cold but couldn’t contain its spin. The ball fell in front of him and as he pounced in front of an Amityville swarm, he took an inadvertent knee to the face.
“I couldn't tell if he was unconscious, but he was laying there and he was not moving,” Colts coach Doug Gannon said. “As a coach, as a parent, as an educator, it's the last thing you want to see. And I was saying a couple prayers right there.”
School medical personnel was quick to the scene and an ambulance was summoned. The Hills West team flocked to either side of his stretcher as he was placed into the ambulance and the Amityville team stood in line at midfield and applauded for him.
About 90 minutes after the game ended, Gannon reported from the hospital that Degregorio was lucid, responsive and doing well. He sent around photos of the two of them smiling and giving a ‘thumbs up’.
Bradley is listed as a midfielder/forward, but as Colts star Ryan Levy said, “He’s just an incredible all-around athlete.” He’d worked at some goalkeeping in practices as an emergency measure and played about 10 minutes at the end of a blowout victory. He made nine saves and shut out an Amityville team that was averaging 2.9 goals per game for 75:06 after the 40-minute delay.
“I was nervous about taking over his role,” Bradley said. “It was stressful because [Amityville] kept coming, but I was able to keep us in the game. Now that it’s over, I just hope [Degregorio] has a speedy recovery.”
“Luke's an athlete and he came up with one of the biggest performances I've seen in a while from a high school kid,” Gannon said.
Bradley had some very capable help in defenders Ryan Chung and Marco D’Alessandro. They threw their bodies in front of shots and made deflections throughout the afternoon.
“They were massive for us,” Bradley said. “They kept putting their bodies on the line.”
The focal point for Hills West (5-3-1, 5-2-1) is always Levy, the 2023 Newsday all-Long Island second teamer. Amityville swarmed Levy to limit his chances. However when he did get one in the first half it ended up leading to the game-winning goal.
He found himself with an open lane to the goal and Braim Rivera had slid in from behind at the last minute to prevent the shot. It resulted in a corner kick and Matthew Bender put it perfectly on the head of Carlos Hernandez for the lone tally with 13:55 left in the first half.
“I know how Bender kicks and it was on me to go up and get it,” Hernandez said.
Amityville (4-3-2, 4-2-2) was on the offensive the entire second half, but most of its shots were away by Bradley, deflected by Chung and D’Alessandro or wide or high of the net.
“After those scary moments and what happened to [Degregorio],” Levy said, “We had to win this one.”
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.