Garden City boys soccer returns with a dominant edge in a victory over Division
Luca Profeta of Garden City, left, gets congratulated by teammate Myles Watson after scoring his second of three goals in the first half of a Nassau boys soccer game against Division at Garden City on Wednesday. Credit: James Escher
Garden City senior striker Myles Watson is still irked by how the 2023 season ended.
The boys soccer team was without a loss or tie before an overtime defeat to Manhasset in the Nassau Class AA championship last fall. Despite the sour ending, Garden City is back with an edge — and has not skipped a beat.
Watson had two goals and an assist, Luca Profeta had a first-half hat trick and Jack Costa had two goals and three assists to lead Garden City to an 8-0 home win over Division in a Nassau Conference AA-III game Wednesday.
“It’s been in the back of my head ever since (former Manhasset player) Gabe Feldman scored that goal in overtime,” Watson said. “It’s just always been in the back of my head. Playing with a little chip on my shoulder, trying to get back there and come away with the title this time.”
Garden City (7-0, 5-0) stayed unblemished and improved to 25-1 in its last 26 games. Coach Paul Cutter does not find himself needing to give his team, which has outscored opponents 35-4 this season, any extra motivation.
“They’re a very hungry group, this group of players,” Cutter said. “They know what happened last year, and they want to try and fix that.”
Profeta, a senior attacking midfielder with Garden City for the first time since 2022 after playing in Germany last year, poured in three goals in the first 20 minutes. Profeta’s second goal made it 2-0 with 25:39 left in the first half. Watson added a goal 56 seconds later and Profeta scored his third with 20:52 left in the first half.
“I really think that we can get anything done that we set our mind to,” Profeta said. “This group of guys is really special. We were underestimated, but we’ve proved a lot of people wrong.”
Division (4-3, 3-2) was without starting goalkeeper Chris Castora, who is sidelined with a broken finger. Shane Villaume made 11 first-half saves.
Costa scored a goal with 8:16 left in the first half, and Watson scored his second 53 seconds later to make it 6-0 before halftime. Costa and Nicholas Clyne each had a second-half goal.
Garden City has one upcoming date circled on its calendar: a rematch at Manhasset next Tuesday.
“Coming into the year, we weren’t expected to be as good as we were in years past,” Watson said. “It’s really nice to be able to prove everyone wrong, still be just as dominant as we were in the years past.”
Ben Dickson joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
