Carle Place boys soccer stays perfect in Nassau B play with victory over Wheatley
Carle Place’s Jason Pereira takes a penalty kick and scores against Wheatley on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
There still may come a day when Wheatley gets the final word in the conversation about who is the dominant force in Nassau Conference B boys soccer. Until then, the debate belongs entirely to Carle Place.
The Frogs delivered their latest statement to that effect on Tuesday by traveling to face the archrival Wildcats and putting up an impressive 3-0. Carle Place (7-0-1, 6-0) has beaten Wheatley (3-2-3, 3-2-1) in both regular season meetings and is beginning to again have the look of a championship-caliber team. The Frogs have won five straight county titles (including one in Class C) and nine crowns in the past 11 seasons.
“We play like we’ve never won a thing . . . you see the energy in every player,” senior forward Matt Babino said. “Everyone has to watch out for the Frogs — we’re coming.”
“This puts us in the driver’s seat for a conference title,” Carle Place coach Conor Reardon said. “While we have experience of returning players, this is still a team that starts eight underclassmen. They have a long way to go and a plenty of obstacles ahead.”
The passion of both teams in this cross-turnpike showdown was apparent from start to finish with five yellow cards issued and plenty of hard takedowns and fouls. But, as Reardon said, “everything feels big when these teams play.”
Carle Place’s first goal was a beauty in the 37th minute. The Frogs had put most balls inbounds via sophomore forward Ryan Leary — who might have the deepest throw-in on the Island — but Babino opted not to wait for a set up and threw the ball in quickly to Jason Pereira, who gave it right back to him on a cut toward the goal. Babino drove the ball toward the back post and sophomore forward Luca Viegas ran right under it and put it in with his right foot.
“I knew he’d make that run after the throw and I put it on him,” Pereira said.
“Our number one rule is close the back post so I went for it,” Babino said. “(Viegas) closed it perfectly.”
“It was a perfect pass,” Viegas said.
Pereira scored on a penalty kick seven minutes into the second half after Leary was taken down in the box. Pereira put a corner kick with 11:28 left in a nice spot for Tyler Aguilar to head it into the goal.
Carle Place junior sweeper Patrick McCarthy and senior stopper Logan Martins teamed nicely to ward of a number of strong bids by Wheatley, three on direct kicks by Zachary Sparacio. Frogs keeper Anthony Terrone had seven saves.
Dean Yamin made six saves for the ’Cats.
“Wheatley knows what we do and is disruptive,” Reardon said. “We got our goals in the moments when we were able to play our game. And the guys on defense? They stood on their heads . . . It wasn’t always pretty, but we got contributions from all over.”
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.
