2005 All-Long Island Boys Soccer

BY TOM ALLEGRA | STAFF WRITER

November 16, 2005

A look at the boys who stood out on Long Island high school soccer fields in the fall of 2005.

JOHN ALBERDA
Commack, Forward, Junior
John Alberda has totaled 58 goals over the past two seasons. This year, he netted a single-season school record 32, including nine hat tricks. And he did it against some of the toughest competition -- Suffolk League II -- that Long Island has to offer. "I haven't seen a player like him before with his foot skills and with such an explosive shot," Sachem North coach Frank Schmidt said. "Some kids can crack a ball, but his shots are on net. They're dipping, and they're being bent or curved around keepers."

BEN ARIKIAN
West Islip, Midfield, Senior
Ben Arikian was the field general for the only Suffolk team to beat Brentwood in the past two years. If he wasn't controlling the ball, he was one touch away. If he wasn't making an assist (he had 30 in his four-year career), he was scoring (he had 35 career goals). And if he didn't have the ball, he was trying to steal it. Said West Islip coach Eddie Pieron: "Even if he's having a bad game, he's around the ball. And he's got great anticipation."

JORGE ARANDA
Brentwood, Goalkeeper, Senior
Playing with a completely different set of defenders in front of him than last season, the 5-4, 135-pound Jorge Aranda did not lose a regular-season game for the second straight year. Not only does he sky over the much-taller opposition to snatch almost every 50-50 ball in the box, but "Koki," as he is called by his teammates, can cover every inch of the goal. Just ask Commack coach Sebastian DiRubba, who watched him make a handful of acrobatic saves to beat the Cougars, 1-0, in the Suffolk Class AA semifinals. "Without him," DiRubba said, "we win."

ALEX BETANCOURT
Syosset, Midfielder, Senior
Goals do not make the player. Players make the goals. And that describes Alex Betancourt, who totaled only one goal this season but impacted games in different ways. That included moving back to sweeper at times and serving as a marking back against opposing team's top scorers. "He's very smooth, and everything goes through him in the midfield," Syosset coach Brett Waxer said. "He controls a game and is very technical. And he does a lot of things with the ball that not a lot of people can do. He'll win every head ball, go through every tackle."

WILBER BONILLA
Brentwood, Midfield, Junior
Wilber Bonilla was one of four Brentwood players to total double-digits (12) in goals this year. But it was a goal that did not count--a bicycle kick in the final second of the first half against Lindenhurst Sept. 30--that best demonstrated Bonilla's spectacular control of his body and the ball. "You don't realize what you just saw," Brentwood coach Ron Eden told the official who ruled it a dangerous play, "and you're never going to see it again. That's the best goal I've ever seen in 25 years of coaching."

GUSTAVO DIAS
Mineola, Forward, Junior
There might be no player on Long Island more valuable to his team than Gustavo Dias, who was involved in all but one of Mineola's 13 goals during its improbable run through the Nassau Class A tournament. That's six goals and six assists in four playoff games. "He's the type of guy that everyone knows about and still can't stop," Mineola coach Paul Pereira said after Dias (37 goals in two seasons) assisted the goal that clinched the first county title in the program's 51-year history. "He has this unquenchable desire to score. And if he loses the ball, he'll chase the guy 90 yards to get it back."

CHRIS KOONTZ
St. Anthony's, Defense, Senior
The Friars lost two of their first three games after entering the season as the highest nationally ranked team on Long Island, and Chris Koontz is a main reason order was restored. The center back was named MVP of the CHSAA title game after helping shut out Chaminade. "Chris controlled a lot of them in the air and he sent everything back," Friars coach Gene Buonaiuto said. "When there's high pressure on, he takes over." Added Kellenberg coach Joe McCann: "A true sweeper is also the first line of attack, and he is."

GARY LaRONDE
Half Hollow Hills East, Midfielder/Forward, Senior
Gary LaRonde's superior stamina makes him a factor at both ends. Not only is he the program's all-time leader with 35 assists, but he is a lockdown marking back who held two of Suffolk's best players (Ben Arikian and Mike Porcelli) in check when the T-Birds handed West Islip its only regular-season loss Oct. 6. "That game defined his season," Hills East coach Mike Bongino said. "After we took a 2-1 lead, he turned to me and he said, 'Coach, I'm not going up to attack. Let me mark Arikian and Porcelli wherever they go.' "

JOHN LEIDNER
Chaminade, Forward, Senior
Ricky Haley had a team-leading 17 goals for Chaminade, and he could thank John Leidner (22 assists) for setting up most of them. Leidner (10 goals) could also score --especially with the game on the line. Kellenberg coach Joe McCann said he'd never forget how Leidner converted a full-volley in a 3-2 loss to Chaminade Oct. 3. "You just sit there and applaud it because it was one of the best goals you saw all year," McCann said. "Leidner is a clutch goal-scorer. When the team really needed a goal, he came up with it."

KEVIN MILLER
Carey, Forward, Senior
Carey coach Ken Ehrenkranz caught of glimpse of his team's brighter future when Kevin Miller scored a hat trick against Garden City in a non-league game in 2002, as all three goals came off assists from fellow freshman Eric Vollmer. The dynamic duo guided Carey to its fourth straight winning record and a trip to the Nassau Class AA semifinals this season, which Miller finished as the Seahawks' all-time leader in goals (75) and assists (45). "He resurrected our program," Ehrenkranz said. "Nobody has a bigger desire to win than Kevin."

STEVE MORALES
Farmingdale, Midfielder, Junior
Steve Morales single-handedly kept Farmingdale close in its Nassau Class AA first-round game. Not only did he head in the equalizer for his sixth goal of the season, but his trademark defense kept favorite Syosset at bay until the fourth overtime. Morales was also a main reason Farmingdale went from winless in Conference AA-II to champs in Conference AA-III. "He's a wizard with the ball, an excellent passer [seven assists] and a great defender," Farmingdale coach Bruce Tetelman said. "If he loses the ball, he'll come right back at you and take it back."

ERICH REICHMANN
Hicksville, Forward, Senior
The knock on Erich Reichmann during his freshman and sophomore seasons was that he wasn't physical. So the one word Herricks coach Tony Viollis used to describe Reichmann -- powerful -- shows he has come a long way. Reichmann finished his four-year varsity career with 31 goals and 22 assists, and will play at DePaul on a partial athletic scholarship. "There are players in the league that you know you want to force to their weak side," Hicksville coach Rich Hinnerschietz said, "but Erich's not one of them because you don't know what side that is. He doesn't have a weak foot."

CHRISTIAN UY
Kellenberg, Forward, Senior
When the going got tough late this season, Christian Uy got going. And goals. During a seven-game winning streak that closed out the regular season and solidified Kellenberg's playoff positioning, Uy totaled 12 goals. "Christian was the most dynamic forward in the league this year," Chaminade coach Michael Gallagher said. Uy finished with 25 goals and nine assists in 15 games. "He had a streak from the middle of the year to the end of the year where he was absolutely the most dangerous player on Long Island." Watch out for Uy's younger brother Matt next season.

JOB VASQUEZ
Brentwood, Defense, Senior
In a 30-second span of the Suffolk Class AA final, Job Vasquez made two textbook slide-tackles before popping back to his feet and maintaining control of the ball. The sequence, which elicited lots of oohs and ahhs from the crowd, was a common occurrence for the soft-spoken sweeper this season despite the fact he's a natural midfielder. "For a guy who hasn't played the position his whole life, he plays it exactly how it should be played," Brentwood coach Ron Eden said of Vasquez, who helped Brentwood total 11 shutouts this season.

JOE VISCARDI
Sachem North, Midfielder, Senior
If there was ever a time to have a big game, it was in the first-ever meeting between two teams from the same school district. Joe Viscardi did just that, netting the only two goals in North's win over defending champion Sachem East in the Suffolk Class AA quarterfinals Nov. 1. "He creates a lot of opportunities for himself to get off shots on goal," North coach Frank Schmidt said of Viscardi, who led the team with 14 goals this fall and had 10 in 2004. "When I say he's a speedster, I don't know if anyone's faster than him in the county."

RYAN VULIN
Massapequa, Midfielder, Senior
Ryan Vulin is human sponge of soccer knowledge. So after soaking up everything he saw from his older teammates as Massapequa advanced one step further into the playoffs each of the past three seasons, culminating with last year's trip to the state final, Vulin became the clear-cut leader for the defending Long Island Class AA champs. "We have a very young team," Chiefs coach Keith Stanley said of the 5-11, 170-pound Vulin, who totaled a team-leading seven goals and seven assists this season, "and he makes the players around him better. The kids look up to him."

MIKE WIECZOREK
Herricks, Defense, Senior
Toughness breeds tolerance for pain. That's why the sweeper was able to rise to his feet to head away an Oceanside entry pass only seconds after he had taken a sacrificial shot off his groin during Herricks' 1-0 quarterfinal win. Mike Wieczorek also swept aside any Massapequa shot or pass that came near him during the Highlanders' overtime win in the Nassau Class A final. "He's very smooth," Herricks coach Tony Viollis said. "He knows when to clear the ball, and he knows when to move it to the side. He's just a cool customer in the back."

COACHES OF THE YEAR
RON EDEN
Brentwood
When you have as many talented players as Brentwood, it isn't easy to get them to play as a team. But Eden has fostered the most unselfish of teams this fall, which has produced the program's first-ever unbeaten Suffolk champion. "If you look at a team that has scored 76 goals, there's no big goal-scorer," Eden said, noting that Anthony Odar led the Indians with 13. "These kids have found a way to share the ball, and they don't really care who scores." That is, as long as they're winning. And Eden, who has a 137-33-11 career record, has done a lot of it over the past three years, during which Brentwood has won two Suffolk Class AA crowns and has not lost a league game. "Ron is more than just a coach to his players," retiring Sachem North coach Frank Schmidt said. "Every Father's Day he gets a dozen phone calls from former players thanking him for what he did for them in high school. His teams may lose one or two games a year, but they never lose in life with Ron as their coach."

TONY VIOLLIS
Herricks
According to Hicksville coach Rich Hinnerschietz, there's a reason that Herricks was able to turn it around after starting out 0-4 in league play. "Once Tony saw all the teams and he saw everyone's strengths and weaknesses, he was able to prepare for them," Hinnerschietz said. "That's a credit to the coach and what he's preaching to the team." In his 24th and final season at the helm, Viollis pleaded his players not to panic, and they listened. The Highlanders went 10-0-1 the rest of the way en route to their first Nassau title since they won three straight from 1994 to 1996. "By the end of the year, Tony's teams are good and they get it," Seaford coach Ralph Pascarella said. "And he teaches, so when his kids go on to play in college, they're solid college players."

2005 All-Long Island Boys Soccer

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