Mehr's header from Hyams puts Jericho in playoffs

A postseason berth was enough motivation for Glenn Hyams. But if the Jericho junior needed more incentive for a victory, the opponent alone gets Hyams fired up.

Jericho was eliminated by Garden City in the Nassau Class A boys soccer semifinals last season and lost the first meeting of this season by one goal.

"We definitely had some unfinished business," Hyams said. "We don't like each other and we remember last season."

Hyams sent a corner kick to Wesley Mehr, who scored his first goal of the season on a header with 16:28 left in the game to give Jericho a 1-0 win over Garden City Tuesday in a Nassau Conference IV game at Robbins Lane field.

The win gives Jericho (6-5-3, 6-4-2) the final playoff spot in the conference with 20 points, one ahead of Garden City (7-3-4, 5-3-4).

"Right off my head I knew it was a goal," Mehr said. "It's a great feeling. I knew we needed one. Me and sweeper Max [Ferro] came up and put extra pressure on them."

Jericho certainly played like a desperate team and dominated play with numerous scoring chances. But it was beginning to feel like it has all season for the Jayhawks, where they would control play and come away with a loss or tie.

"We knew it would come eventually," Hyams said. "We were working so hard and finally got the result we deserved. We kept going at them. We've been working on corners and have been doing well on our set pieces all year. I played one into Wes and he got his head on it."

Just four minutes before the goal, Garden City had a great chance to score after a save by Jericho goalkeeper Ben Rechler. With Rechler (four saves) down, Ferro was in the middle of the goal and made a kick save.

All Garden City needed was a tie to clinch a postseason spot. Nassau went from an ability-based grouping format last season, where some teams were guaranteed playoff berths before the year, to an enrollment format for conference alignments.

The top four teams from each conference make the playoffs and Conference IV was very competitive with three Class A semifinal teams from last season.

"It's unfortunate," Garden City coach Carlo Mazarese said, "but I don't think the best teams are in the playoffs. We knew this and we didn't earn it. We had a chance and I can't blame anyone else but ourselves. My guys did their best. I can't complain about the effort. Jericho played well. We created chances, but didn't finish."