South Side's Summer Stack starts quickly in win over MacArthur

Summer Stack may be the only one who was questioning whether she belonged on the field for South Side.

The freshman midfielder for the South Side girls soccer team played in her first varsity game on Thursday. Nerves before your first varsity game, especially for someone who just started high school this week, are normal. But Stack was lacking confidence about how her varsity season would go.

“I thought I was going to do bad this season,” Stack said. “I thought I wasn’t going to do the best.”

It didn’t take Stack long to prove herself wrong. She headed in a goal off a ball deflected by the MacArthur goalkeeper after a free kick sent in by Viv Haley to break a tie at 1 as South Side defeated host MacArthur, 3-2, in each team’s season and Nassau Conference AAA/AA-I opener on Thursday.

“It was a perfect angle to cross it in,” Haley said. “I wasn’t even thinking about shooting it on net, but the wind definitely helped push it in and then Summer was right there. Just perfect positioning. She’s an amazing runner, amazing skill. She can run for days.”

“It was a big moment,” Stack said. “I didn’t really know what to do because I was just smiling and everyone was running over to me. It was just so exciting.”

Stack scored with 18:38 left in the second half and the Cyclones added to their lead less than three minutes later when Sophia Anisansel scored off an assist from Sarah Schaefer with 15:41 left to take a 3-1 lead.

“Not even just her goal, it was her play on the field,” coach Judi Croutier said of Stack. She made great runs, she came back on defense, but then finishing was definitely very nice to see.”

Bella Calabro scored first for the Generals before Schaefer used her body to finish a corner kick from Brooke Doreste to tie the score at 1.

Ysabelle Perillo scored off an assist from Caitlin Barry with 4:28 left for MacArthur, but South Side, the defending Nassau Class AA champions, held on for the victory. South Side graduated 16 seniors from last season, but the Cyclones are determined to continue the program’s elite legacy.

“We were confident but we were also a little bit nervous,” Haley said. “We didn’t know what to expect and this win really shows we can do even better and make it further.”

South Side has won a county title in three of the last four seasons and has 17 state titles in program history.

“Traditions are big but it’s a lot of work,” Croutier said. “And the ones who have been on the team know that. Nothing comes easy, nobody is giving you anything so they know they have a target from that and they have to work hard every day, so this is a nice first step toward that.”