Brentwood, Commack play to scoreless tie
Brentwood’s Jose Garcia makes one of four saves. Commack’s Gianluca Justinic also stopped four shots on Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. Credit: George A Faella
The game between the top two boys soccer teams in the Suffolk I standings was still scoreless in the fading light Friday at Brentwood High. Suddenly, Jack Newfield had a shot to untie it for Commack from 15 yards away. The ball left his foot and headed for the right corner of the net.
The last line of defense for Brentwood was determined to interrupt the trip with the clock approaching 16 minutes to go.
“I surprised myself,” Jose Garcia said. “I just had to react.”
Garcia dove, and the junior goalkeeper smothered it.
“I struck it well, and the keeper made an unbelievable save, got down,” Newfield said. “I mean, props to him about that … Great keeper. Good shot, but better save.”
Garcia and his Commack counterpart, Gianluca Justinic, made four saves apiece. When 80 minutes were up, it was still a scorless tie.
There were doubts the teams could get in both overtime periods with darkness creeping into the picture at a field without lights. So both coaches agreed to pass on trying.
“Both teams had some chances,” Commack coach Dave Moran said. “A couple of good goalie saves both ways. Hard-fought battle. It was kind of a tale of two halves. I think they were kind of all over us in the first and we were all over them in the second.”
His Cougars are now 5-0-2 in the league and 8-0-2 overall. Brentwood is 5-0-1 in the league and 7-0-2 overall.
Both teams were high seeds last season but were edged in the opening round of the Suffolk Class AA playoffs.
“We’ve got a lot of guys back from last year, about eight starters,” Moran said. “So they knew what that felt like. So I think that motivates any team.”
Ron Eden, who recently won his 600th game across 28 seasons as Brentwood’s head coach and 16 there as an assistant, said his team is also hungry.
“But this is a completely different team,” Eden said. “We graduated nine starters. We’ve got 26 underclassmen on the roster. We’re young … But we’re getting there.”
Zach Fawaz, Brayden O’Boyle and Olek Wisniewski were among the standouts for Commack.
Garcia also stood out by deflecting three balls over the crossbar, including one on a long, well-placed free kick by Tyler Kurtis.
“Two unbelievable teams,” Newfield said. “… Hopefully, we’ll see them in the playoffs again.”
