Anthony Cammisuli, Jericho thrilled to come away with a tie against host South Side

The Jericho boys soccer team wasn’t concerned with how much time was left on the clock.

With the Jayhawks trailing by one goal with less than a minute remaining, Jericho kept pushing the attack. And with 31.9 seconds remaining, Anthony Cammisuli scored off a scramble in front of the net as Jericho tied South Side at 3 at Darcy Field in Rockville Centre in Nassau AB-III boys soccer action Friday night. 

“I was doing anything I could to score,” Cammisuli said. “Ball came to me, I hit it back corner, it’s a great feeling. The best feeling of my life.”

Cammisuli didn’t know exactly how much time was left, but he knew there wasn’t much. So he fought his way in the middle near the goal and was at the right place at the right time to deliver for his team.

“Clock was running down, had to do what I had to do,” he said. “My team was calling for me and I did what they wanted to do. Tied the game. It was a big game.”

Jericho coach Dani Braga said Cammisuli has come through with multiple key goals this season, as the Jayhawks move to 3-0-1 in conference play.

“They’re a great team and this is what it’s all about,” Braga said. “It’s fun. Last second coming back, as much as we don’t like to tie — a tie is a loss for us — both teams played very hard and we’re happy with the result.”

Jericho wasted little time as Aaron Jaffee corralled a loose ball and scored 1:19 into the contest for the game’s first goal.

South Side (2-0-1) evened the score with Vasion Sinjari’s goal with 25:30 remaining in the first half after South Side goalkeeper Danny Kelleher sent a free kick into the box.

But Jericho quickly answered, when Jordan Miller took a pass from Paolo Martino, made a move around Kelleher charging out of the net and scored with 8:40 remaining in the first half.

The Cyclones countered, when Sinjari struck again with a goal with 26:40 remaining in the second half to tie the score at 2. Miguel Hulyalkar drilled the go-ahead goal for South Side from about 12 yards out to the lower-left corner of the net with 24:34 remaining in the game, taking a 3-2 advantage.

“You’re not going to win a county championship in one game,” South Side coach Fred Paul said. “So we need to stick to the basics…if we just stick to what we’re capable of, it’s going to be good enough to win a lot of games.”

Although not completely satisfied with a tie, Jericho is still happy with the late fight to leave the field without picking up a loss.

“We definitely will learn from this,” Cammisuli said. “But it’s great that we came out with a tie instead of a loss in the end.”