Ryleigh Nocera's goal propels young Seaford girls soccer to LI Class B crown

The Seaford girls soccer team is ahead of schedule. How many teams can start six freshmen and advance to a state semifinal? Certainly not many, but the Vikings' freshmen aren’t like your typical freshmen.

“I kind of knew we would make it far because all of us have been playing together for a while,” freshman Ryleigh Nocera said. “But I didn’t expect us to make it this far.”

And how far Seaford makes it is still to be determined after the Vikings recorded a 1-0 overtime victory over Babylon in the Long Island Class B championship/Southeast Regional final at Berner Middle School Saturday.

Seaford (14-1-1) advances to play Irvington in the state Class B semifinals at Cortland at 3 p.m. on Saturday. Babylon finishes at 9-9.

Nocera scored the winning goal 54 seconds into the first overtime period. She fielded a long throw-in from Kayla Hoehn, took a quick touch and flicked it over the goalkeeper’s head a few yards next to the net.

“I was just running and I kicked it, not even thinking it was going to go in,” Nocera said. “And when it did, it was just incredible. Seeing my whole team run over to me was incredible, I still can’t believe it.”

Hoehn, who has made a habit all season of long throw-ins, was trying to direct Nocera toward the net.

“I had a good feeling on that one,” said Hoehn, who is also a freshman. “I kind of moved my hands to direct Ryleigh to the front post to get it.”

Before the overtime, coach Ken Botti had a simple message for his team.

“We didn’t really talk about a fast goal but we talked about this ride not ending,” Botti said. “We definitely weren’t ready to end the season. I told them basically, ‘I’ll see you Monday, we’ll be practicing all week and going to Cortland.’ ”

Mia Leggio, Arianna Garcia, Amanda Williamson and Amanda Ettinger had a strong defensive game to limit Babylon’s scoring chances with Joanna Bello recording eight saves.

Seaford starts two sophomores, two juniors, one senior with the six freshmen. Although many of the players are young in age and varsity experience, they quickly gained the confidence to compete and excel against older players.

“We’re a great group,” Hoehn said. “We’ve been waiting for this moment and this year to have a chance.”

“We had hopes, we had aspirations and I think the dream just got more real as the season went on,” Botti said. “The confidence just grew from there. We knew we were a good team, it doesn’t take much to convince us. We are pretty convinced we are a good team. We know who we are.”

This was Seaford’s first Long Island championship in program history after winning its first county title Oct. 27.

“Their name is going down in history, no one will ever forget it,” Botti said. “They’ll go up on a banner and no one can take it away from them. They are L.I. champs, county champs and now they’re going to compete for states.”