If a team is seeded low after an uncharacteristically shaky regular season, but has championship muscle memory and one of the top players in the city, is it still an upstart?
What about when said team eliminates the defending city champion? Gets an early score from its star player, holds on when the game-tying strike in the final minute bounces off the crossbar?
Can it then be called an upset?
Jackie Bruno, the McKee/Staten Island Tech standout who scored the match’s lone goal, didn’t have an answer for the question. Sweeper Breanna Brukalo didn’t either. Ditto coach Joanna Santarpia.
“I feel like people feel that way because we didn’ t come away with as many wins as we usually do,” said Bruno, The Post’s reigning Staten Island Player of the Year.
The trio wasn’t overly concerned about labeling the thrilling, hard-fought victory. They were just happy to have the 1-0 win over second-seeded Bronx Science that sets up a third meeting with No. 3 Tottenville in the PSAL Class A girls soccer semifinals next Thursday at 12:00 p.m. at Flushing Meadows Park in Queens.
“It feels great,” Brukalo said. “We’re lucky No. 7.”
Breaking in several new starters, No. 7 MSIT (12-3-0) got off to a poor start, dropping more regular season matches – three – than it had in the previous five seasons. The low point was back-to-back defeats to Tottenville and Susan Wagner that sunk the Staten Island dynamo’s record to a rather pedestrian 4-3-0.
It can now be called the turning point, as MSIT has eight straight victories since those losses. The juniors – namely Bruno, Brukalo and midfielder Nicole Brennan – began demonstrating leadership in support of the teams’ lone seniors, fullback Meagan Koeth goalkeeper Yuliya Kim and midfielder Valeriana Dema. Freshmen Rebecca Rondina emerged in the back, aiding the stout Brukalo on defense and Caroline DeSantis found her footing up front.
“It was a matter of the chemistry didn’t fit right,” Bruno said. “After we came away with such big wins, it definitely stuck. Last few games we’ve been meshing.”
The Seagulls lack the firepower of teams in recent memory, but they are stout defensively, having held its first two playoffs victims – No. 26 Richmond Hill and No. 10 Long Island City – without a shot on goal. Kim made 11 saves on Friday, but a precious few were quality attempts. Sophomore Elizabeth Schaeffer’s shot hitting off the crossbar in the final minute was Science’s best opportunity.
“From where I was standing, that’s going in and it hit the crossbar,” Santarpia said. “I was thanking the soccer gods for that one.”
Kim had to make a leaping save of a Miami Rahaman shot from the right side of the box in the 46th minute she and had a header at the doorstep sail just wide 15 minutes before halftime.
Bruno’s rocket from 30 yards out was all the offense MSIT would need. She did the same in a regular season-closing, 1-0 victory over Tottenville.
“It’s kind of what’s it’s been all year: We get the first goal and we’re good after that,” Santarpia said. “Usually we get more in the second half, but not today. We’ll take the one.”
That one goal was all it took for the Seagulls to get back to the semifinals, where they have been each of the last five years, and force the rubber match with Tottenville.
“It’s just a matter of who brings the most heart,” Bruno said. “We’re on the same skill level. We have to want it more.”
