Nassau A-II leaders North Shore and Plainedge battle to scoreless tie in boys soccer
Plainedge goalkeeper Henry Villeda makes the save in traffic during a Nassau Conference A-II boys soccer game against North Shore on Monday. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
There’s a little more than two weeks left in the boys soccer regular season and the three-team battle in Nassau A-II between North Shore, Plainedge and Lawrence for the division crown and playoff seeding is awfully tight. On Monday there was a chance for some added clarity, but none came.
North Shore visited Plainedge’s Byrne Memorial Field and looked the far better team as it spent most of the game on attack. However, Red Devils goalkeeper Henry Villeda turned in his best performance of the season and the teams battled to a scoreless tie.
Lino Leighton, Henry Cardoza and Griffin Pinter orchestrated something akin to a bombardment on the Plainedge goal with accurate passes and hard shots. Villeda turned 14 of them away, some on athletic dives and others fingertip deflections.
“We were dominating them for most of the game and in the last 10 minutes they weren’t trying to beat us and just keep us off the board,” Pinter said. “[Villeda] had a good game, but we have to keep our heads up.”
“[North Shore] has a really strong offense,” Villeda said. “I did all I could . . . It’s not the best result, but it feels like a win.”
The Vikings (6-0-3, 6-0-3) had a slew of chances. Leighton’s direct kick from 22 yards out with 9:40 left in the first half was deflected when Villeda reached it on a full-extension dive. Pinter put a spectacular pass on Leighton’s head right in front of the goal with 18:23 left in the game that hit the crossbar.
“Soccer can be a funny game,” North Shore coach Michael Bishop said. “Sometimes an inch or two one way or the other on a shot can be the difference.”
“North Shore took it to us, but Henry was ‘light’s out,’ ” Plainedge coach Jason Cinelli said. “ . . . He saved us today.”
Plainedge (7-1-2, 5-1-2) was hamstrung with leading scorer A.J. Gulino sidelined for a second straight game with a knee issue. Gulino had 14 goals before he got hurt, but Plainedge didn’t lose either game he missed.
“We are a very different team with A.J. on the field because he commands so much attention,” Cinelli said. “He gets double-teamed and still scores.”
The Devils’ best chances came either as a result of prodigious throw-ins by Matthew Barry or sharp drives through small openings by Jake Hobi. Vikings goalie Tristan Segal made four saves.
North Shore has twice tied Lawrence and is 1-0-1 against Plainedge. The Devils still have two games scheduled with Lawrence, which entered play Monday 5-0-2 in the division, and those results have a chance to ultimately tell the tale for playoff seeding out of the division.
The Vikings still have a shot to finish the regular season without a loss, but Pinter said that is of no consequence.
“Your record doesn’t matter if you don’t win in the playoffs,” he said. “We had a good [regular] season last year and lost in the first round. When your goal is to win a championship . . . that’s the only thing that matters.”
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.