Jostin Cajas, Kal-El Marine help Greenport claim Suffolk Class C boys soccer championship
Greenport celebrates its win over Southold in the Suffolk Class C boys soccer final on Monday at Diamond in the Pines. Credit: Bob Sorensen
The boys from Greenport left the soccer field at Diamond in the Pines technically as the Suffolk Class C co-champions with Pierson/Bridgehampton a year ago. But the Porters weren’t feeling like champs because they actually fell on penalty kicks that day in Coram.
Monday in Coram felt a whole lot better for Greenport. The second-seeded Porters left that same soccer field with a 2-1 win over No. 1 Southold in their county championship game thanks in large part to a pair of goals by junior striker Jostin Cajas and 11 saves by senior goalkeeper Kal-El Marine.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have the same guys as last year, but a lot of people stepped it up,” Marine said. “I would’ve loved to win it with them, too. But it’s great now, too.”
Coach Greg Dlhopolsky described Greenport before the season as being in “a rebuilding mode.” Now his Porters (7-6-2) are moving on to the Class C Southeast Regional final at 2 p.m. Saturday at Diamond in the Pines.
They will face the winner of Wednesday’s regional semifinal between North Salem of Section I and Rhinebeck of Section IX for a ticket to the final four in Middletown.
“We’re happy to get the county championship,” Dlhopolsky said, “and we’re going to go into that game with the same mantra: Win this one and we get another one, and see how far we can go.”
Cajas, who came in with two goals in an injury-plagued season, matched that production in one game after scoring the tiebreaker with 11:02 remaining.
“To be honest, it meant everything for me and the school,” Cajas said through the translation of teammate Luis Maye Masin.
Junior goalie Travis Sepenoski had tried to get to the ball. Cajas said he read that Sepenoski wasn’t going to make it in time and sent the shot into the open net from about 25 yards out on the right side.
“You see it happen in top professional leagues around the world,” Settlers coach Andrew Sadowski said.
“It’s not easy,” he added about losing, “especially because the hardest worker on the team is personally putting it on his own shoulders, and I know that’s what Travis is doing. But Travis is an outstanding goalkeeper.”
Cajas dribbled through traffic and scored from the left side of the box for a 1-0 lead with 12:58 gone in the first half. But Joshua Uguna evened it 6:04 into the second half.
Otherwise, Marine kept Southold (7-7-2) from capitalizing, including three stops in one second-half sequence.
“I think we can 100% make [the final four],” Marine said. “… I’m still locked in for the next game. One game at a time until we win it all.”
