Daniel Santos' goal sends Oceanside boys soccer to win
Dan Santos of Oceanside, right, gets congratulated by teammate Derek Gromling after scoring the opening goal of the match late in the first half of a Nassau Conference AA boys soccer game host Westbury on Tuesday. Credit: James Escher
One couldn’t look away as Daniel Santos took the ball nearly the length of the field. In one moment of his drive toward the goal, the Oceanside senior was nice combination of speed and strength. In another, the forward looked destined to lose control.
But Santos stayed on the edge between those two on Tuesday as the Sailors visited defending Nassau AA champion Westbury. He took a spill in a collision with one defender, got up to resume his bid for the goal and ultimately juked another defender before finding the top of the net to break a scoreless tie.
Three minutes later junior Giacomo Vacchio would score off a feed from Derek Gromling and the Sailors were on course for a 3-0 Nassau AA victory. Senior Jack Bonura scored Oceanside’s final goal on a pass from Gromling in the late going.
“That was ice water in the veins,” Sailors coach Partick Turk said. “He gets rolling and he’s made for those moments. He got knocked down and still got up to take it to the house.”
Santos’ goal came at about the 36th minute of the first half — it’s best-guess as Westbury’s field has no scoreboard or clock — and staggered the Green Dragons. Vacchio’s goal was a knockdown of sorts. A young Westbury squad that spent the first 40 minutes as the aggressor, was dispiritingly down 2-0 at halftime.
“When you’re a young team and work as hard as we did and come away down?” Westbury coach Chris Valentini said. “Without a doubt it hurts — and we have to become stronger mentally.”
“[Westbury] was more aggressive, but we had more composure,” Sailors senior defender Jake Christel said. “They didn’t have the same intensity in the second half.”
Players on Oceanside (2-1, 2-0) described themselves as "rebuilding" after the game, but it may be too soon to affix that label. Senior Chris Pena has been moved from midfield to defense and teamed well with Christel. Junior Brennan Murphy was a force in the midfield. And Vacchio’s goal took a serious toll.
“We’re in a rebuilding phase, but I wouldn’t call us out of the running,” Santos said.
Added Vacchio “We lost some great seniors but there’s still a lot of weapons.”
This loss for the Dragons (0-3, 0-3) comes after a pair of 1-0 defeats. As was the case in those other games, Westbury had plenty of scoring opportunities Tuesday.
“I see a team trying for a perfect shot over good contact,” Valentini said. “We are doing all the right things to get scoring opportunities. The goals are going to come. Getting that first one would help.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
