The Benjamin Cardozo girls soccer team won its first division title since 2003. (Photo Courtesy of Stephanie Santoro)
Creshana Jones fell to the ground and put her hands to her face. The junior had envisioned this moment was possible when she began playing soccer at Cardozo last season. Some of her teammates jumped on her and the rest crowded around and lept in celebration.
The Judges had just knocked off defending division champion Francis Lewis, 3-0, to claim the PSAL Queens A-IV girls soccer title at home Tuesday. The crown is Cardozo’s first since the 2003 season — 6 1/2 years ago.
“I knew we worked so hard,” said Jones, who had a goal and an assist. “Last year when I first joined the team, I knew we had potential to come together as a team. I don’t know if it’s the coaching or just players. They definitely wanted it.”
She spent the game being harassed by a physical Francis Lewis defense, being bodied, bumped and pushed. It was only fitting that a sparkling run up the near side, in which she beat three defenders as she pushed the ball into the box, ended with her hitting the turf. It wasn’t before she beat both a charging defender and Francis Lewis goalkeeper Julia Bernhardt with a goal to give Cardozo a 2-0 lead in the 45th minute.
“I felt [the defender] hit me in my back,” Jones said. “Then I saw the keeper coming and I knew there was no way I was not going on the floor. I just braced myself for impact.”
Cardozo first-year coach Stephanie Santoro was running up the sideline with Jones as she made her sprint toward the goal. It’s something she does nearly every time her star looks like she is making an attempt to score. The two teams played to a 2-2 tie in their first meeting on Oct. 3.
“The way she plays gets me excited,” Santoro said. “It’s like I am playing. I feel when she has to run I go to run because I know she is going to finish.”
Cardozo (10-1-1) jumped ahead early by taking advantage of a miscommunication by Francis Lewis. One of its defenders served a ball back into the box for the far corner of the field. It bounced over the head of a charging Bernhardt and to the foot of Ariel Levy for a goal in the 35th minute. The junior capped the scoring off a pass from Jones, which was initially knocked away, late in the second half.
“I kept fighting for it,” Levy said.
The Judges’ defense controlled Francis Lewis (8-1-3) strikers Gena Koutsounadis and Libby Zelikowitz for the most part, switching fresh defenders on and off them. Koutsounadis had a tough sho got just wide of the far post in the first half and Zelikowitz missed a shot chip in the 43rd minute.
“We had a chance to maybe put two or three [in],” Francis Lewis coach Jeovani Paredes said. “We just didn’t do it. I believe if we would have put one of those in it would have been a different game.”
Cardozo could enter the playoffs as a top five seed a year after being No. 18.
“We have more confidence now,” said Levy
