When Bronx Science’s hopes of defending its PSAL Class A crown had ended Friday afternoon in a disappointing 1-0 loss to No. 7 McKee/Staten Island Tech, the second-seeded Wolverines didn’t shed any tears. Sure, there were slumped shoulders and sad faces as they met in a circle on the Randall’s Island turf after the quarterfinal setback, but Science, a young team full of sophomores and juniors, seemed to grasp the situation.
The Bronx A champions enjoyed an undefeated league season, ran into a hot club that struck early and the Wolverines couldn’t capitalized on a myriad of opportunities.
The magic of last year was just that – last year.
“We gave it our all, I told them I’m proud of them,” Science coach Josh Zuckeman said. “It was a very even game. I don’t think they dominated. We had the ball in their end quite a bit and that happens in soccer. Sometimes you don’t get the breaks.”
The Wolverines’ greatest chance came in the waning moments, when sophomore Elizabeth Schaeffer nearly notched the equalizer ripping a shot from the top of the 18-yard goalkeeper’s box that bounced off the crossbar. MIST goalkeeper Yuliya KIm was unable to corral the rebound, but junior Daniella Aricha had her shot blocked and couldn’t retrieve a second deflection.
“Inches either way,” Zuckerman said. “But that’s soccer; sometimes they go in, sometimes they don’t.”
Moments later, the triple whistle blew – Science (13-1-0), ranked third in the city by The Post, was out of chances.
It didn’t have many. Kim made nine saves, but was rarely tested. Her best save was a leaping grab of a Miami Rahaman drive from the right side of the box in the 45th minute. Rahaman, a sophomore midfielder, had another golden opportunity 15 minutes before halftime, sending a header at the door step just wide.
Too often, Science was unable to penetrate the Seagulls (12-3-0) backline, notably sweeper Breanna Brukalo, so many of their attempts in the second half were from distance, shots with little chance of tickling twine.
“I don’t want to break down my team, we didn’t play our ‘A’ game,” Zuckerman said. “Some of our girls didn’t play up to their capacity. I thought they were capable of doing much more. I think [MSIT] was weak on the outside backs. Normally we could do a lot of work; today it wasn’t there.”
MSIT’s greatest edge, Zuckerman said, was its geography. Staten Island A has three of the four semifinal entrants – No. 3 Tottenville, No. 5 Petrides and the seventh-seeded Sea Gulls – teams that were battle-tested by the playoffs while Science routinely had to sit its starters by halftime of walkovers, winnings its 12 league games by a combined 77-2.
“We play in such a weak division that I can’t really coach them,” Zuckerman said. “When you’re winning 9-0 or 10-0, those are meaningless games. We can’t get exposed. … Their physicality really slowed us down. We’re not used to playing as physical a team as they were.”
