Amityville wins third state championship with win over Beacon
Amityville celebrates their win in the Class A final at the NYSPHSAA Boys Soccer Championships in Middletown, N.Y., on Sunday. Credit: Adrian Kraus
MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. – In the end, there was no room for doubt.
As the Amityville boys soccer players jumped into a celebratory dogpile in front of their goal, one couldn’t point to a lucky break or personnel change or even a turning point that put them there. Amityville was simply the best Class A program in the state from the start of this season until it ended Sunday with their dominating 4-0 victory over Beacon in the state championship game at Middletown High’s Faller Field.
“We played our best game of the season right here when it counted the most,” Roberth Perez said. “Every game, we’ve played better than the last. That’s what championship teams do, play better [as] the games get more important.”
Amityville (20-1-1) is a state champion for the third time and first since 2018. It was trounced, 7-2, in the 2021 state title game by Somers on the same field and has been on a mission to win this crown ever since. Beacon (14-4-2) just had the misfortune of being the final obstacle.
In a postseason run that has seen several different Amityville players take star turns, it was Hugo Rodriguez that put his imprint on this win over the Bulldogs. The senior striker scored two goals and assisted on a third with an exacting corner kick. Stanley Louis had a goal and an assist, Horace Hibbert scored a goal and John Arango and Perez each added an assist for Amityville.
Rodriguez has been one of Amityville’s big finishers during the regular season, but less so in the postseason run. After the team’s semifinal win Saturday, coach Mike Abbondondolo told him that trying too hard to score had taken him off his game.
“I think the circumstances had gotten to me and I was seeking the goal too much,” he said.
When Arango found him 12 yards in front of the left post, Rodriguez put a shot across the goalmouth and into the net for a 1-0 lead in the game’s 17th minute. His corner kick found the head of Hibbert right in front with 5:19 left in the half for a 2-0 lead and in the 22nd minute of the second half he scored from in close off a Louis pass for a 3-0 margin.
“We were really talented from the start, but everyone can’t be ‘The Man,’” Abbondondolo said. “When they saw that anyone could be ‘The Man’ on a team like this, a day like today became possible.”
Goalie Matthew Katz – who had five saves in the final for his fourth postseason shutout – joined Amityville’s journey this season after transferring from Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK. He attended the 2021 loss to Somers and said “they were wiped out, devastated after that and I’ve seen the determination in them to get back here and win this every day since then.”
“So many teams begin a season saying they will win the state, but people don’t realize how much has to go into it,” Abbondondolo said. “This group believed in each other. There was self-sacrifice. They were fully committed. Those are things that go into being a championship team.”
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.
