Orologio overcomes injury to lead Wheatley in goal

Eric Orologio has been playing with an injury to his right quad, limiting how much time the Wheatley goalkeeper can practice.

Orologio said he has been trying to "lay off on the kicks" in order to prevent further aggravating the injury but when it's game time Orologio said he goes all out.

"In the games I'm going my hardest and things are back to the bottom," Orologio said of how his leg feels during games.

Orologio's ability to put mind over matter has been very important for Wheatley which defeated Carle Place 2-1 in Conference VIII Tuesday.

"He's a super goalie," Wheatley coach Steve Cadet said of Orologio, who finished with eight saves. "He needs time [to heal] but it's kind of tough giving him time."

The Wildcats grabbed the early lead when Charley Cooper took a pass from Jonathan Kowalyczk and shot the ball inside the far post past Carle Place's Stephen Laurino in the 10th minute. It was Cooper's third goal in the last four games.

"Charlie's been on fire," Cadet said. "It was a good setup and he hit it perfectly."

Carle Place tied the game at 1 just five minutes into the second half when Alex Flecker headed Stephen Browne's free kick past Orologio. Flecker has scored a goal in four straight games.

"Tying it up early in the second half was what we wanted to do," Carle Place coach Allen Foraker said.

The Wildcats kept the pressure on the Frogs and eventually broke through when Greg Carlin shot the ball past a crowd of players in front of Carle Place's net to give Wheatley a 2-1 lead with 12:30 remaining.

"I don't know what happened," Carlin said. "I got lucky and scored."

The win puts Wheatley (5-0) atop the Conference VIII standings with Carle Place (3-1-2) in second. Cadet said there's always room for the Wildcats to improve.

"We're happy with our position, we're not 100 percent happy with our play," Cadet said. "The kids know that if we're going to make a run we have to be a little sharper."