Floral Park boys soccer earns first Long Island championship behind goals by Aidan Conlon and Conor McCarthy 

With his back to the goal, Floral Park senior Aidan Conlon wasn’t thinking of scoring. After all, he had two defenders on him with options to play the ball backward.

“I was looking to pass, honestly,” Conlon said. “I just turned around, and I was open.”

“He’s being too nonchalant,” senior Conor McCarthy interjected.

“Nonchalant” is the right way to put the play itself as Conlon instead smoothly pulled the ball back and toward the goal before firing in the go-ahead score into the bottom left corner less than nine minutes into the game.

The goal sparked Floral Park’s ride to its first Long Island championship game victory in program history as it beat Glenn, 2-0, in Class A at Farmingdale State on Friday night.

Conlon’s goal came early as Floral Park opened the game with the physicality and hustle that Glenn initially struggled to match. It epitomized the change in culture coach Ahkeel Rodney has instilled in his team, one centered around “hard work.”

“It’s hard to put into words,” Rodney said. “It just means so much because it means so much to everybody and the community . . . I always feel like when you are working hard, no one can take it away from you. And they’ve accomplished something no one has ever accomplished.”

McCarthy added the second goal in the final minute of the game as Glenn pushed goalie Tyler Ziminiski into midfield, leaving an empty net for him to add to the total.

“I’ve grown up with some of these kids,” McCarthy said. “It just means the world to me.”

But it was McCarthy’s work in the midfield alongside junior midfielder Brady Croon that exhibited the spirit Rodney spoke of, setting the tone and forcing Glenn to rise to the call. 

Glenn (15-3-1) settled in toward the end of the first half and looked rejuvenated over the final 40 minutes, but it still struggled to put shots on target. Part of that can be attributed to the defensive effort of senior midfielder Michael Donovan, who filled in at center back to close the game out.

“Mike is someone who’s developed so much trust with me ever since 10th grade,” Rodney said. “It’s not that someone was doing poorly in the back, it’s that we know Mike’s speed, we know Mike’s determination, we know his ability to just give everything.”

All those years of building led Floral Park to Farmingdale State this November, with the bond clearly shown when McCarthy and Rodney fired up a quick tap dance with each other upon receiving the plaque. Now, for the first time, Floral Park (13-3-1) will be loading the buses up to Middletown to face the winner of Section IX’s Our Lady of Lourdes and Section IV’s Owego Free Academy on Nov. 16.