Kugler, Modena lead 'Pequa to girls soccer title

CORTLAND, N.Y. - Each Massapequa player dealt with victory in their own way. Some stood in a circle singing "We Are the Champions." Some talked about a "dinner of champions at Wendy's." Asked what she was going to do now that she was a state champion, Erica Modena replied, "We're going to Disney World!"

Then there was senior Amanda Reverberi - the field general of the team - talking about just how much confidence the Chiefs had walking into the state championship game.

"After our first game [in Cortland] we had to pack everything to bring on the bus so that, if we did lose, you would just go home," she said. "But actually a few of our girls left some stuff in the room knowing that we had to come back. We weren't losing. We had to come back."

No need to leave items superstitiously in their hotel rooms any longer, as Massapequa beat Webster Thomas, 2-0, Saturday in the state Class AA girls soccer championship game at Tompkins-Cortland CC. It was the Chiefs' first title since 2005. Webster-Thomas is 18-3-2.

EmmaLee Meyer was named outstanding goalkeeper after making six saves in the shutout and Reverberi was named the outstanding player.

"To me, she's the heart and soul of the team," Massapequa coach Bruce Stegner said of his key midfielder. "She's the guts of the team. She's the leader. She's a great distributor of the ball. She's better in the air on headballs than any girl I've ever seen."

Reverberi's tough play in the middle kept the ball largely in Massapequa's possession, and the underclassmen took it from there.

Taylor Kugler, who scored the winner with two minutes remaining in the semifinal on Friday, got the Chiefs (19-0-1) on the board just 5:42 into the final with a hook shot from the left corner. The ball had been played close to the out-of-bounds line, and with Stegner imploring her to "save it," Kugler sent a shot toward the goal.

"I think the goalie was caught off guard," Stegner said. "With the wind, the goalie thought the ball was coming out toward the six and it kind of took a little turn there and she couldn't get back to the line quick enough."

Kugler, a freshman who was called up to varsity for the playoffs, said she never could have imagined having such an impact.

"When I got called up, I thought, 'maybe I'll go in 10 minutes here and there,' " she said. "But when I actually got here and I started to play, I played pretty good, I guess. And I kept going in."

Stegner was pleasantly surprised as well. "She had a good season with the JV, and we kept her there because we didn't know how much time she would get playing up here," he said. "I think in retrospect it worked out well, that she was able to get a lot of playing time there and come up and be fresh and contribute. She's an incredibly talented player with all the intangibles."

Webster Thomas' best chance to tie the score came on an indirect kick opportunity after a Massapequa player was called for obstruction with 26:52 left in the second half. But Leah Emaus sent the ball directly into the goal without it touching another player first. After the referee disallowed the goal for not being an indirect kick, the Webster-Thomas bench went into a frenzy, with coach Scott Brown and another player receiving yellow cards.

But Modena, a sophomore, soon rendered the call moot, scoring off a cross from Taylor Elliot with 13:12 left to give the Chiefs their final margin.

"We came knowing we were winning states," Reverberi said. "We weren't leaving. We didn't come off the field thinking, 'if I would have done this . . . ' or 'should I have done that?' We put everything out on the field."