Just three games into the regular season, the Fordham Prep soccer team is already following a familiar script: Fall behind early and rally late. That’s been the situation in the Rams first two games and it happened again Tuesday afternoon in a 2-2 draw with rival Regis at Randall’s Island.
Trailing by two goals, Fordham Prep (0-1-2 CHSAA Class A) struck twice in the final 10 minutes when Berent Kowarick and Mark Kramarchuk scored within a two-minute span.
“As a young team, I think it’s just a bunch of guys who want to win,” Rams captain Nick Paganelli said. “When we come out down 2-0 in the second half, it just kind of sparks everyone. We just have to find a way to get the goals earlier.”
Paganelli set up the Rams’ first goal, chipping a free kick into the right side of the 18-yard box, a ball that was flicked on by Nihad Musovic back across the goal were Kowarick tapped it home.
Earlier in the second half, Paganelli had another free kick from a similar distance, but Regis goalkeeper Connor Hailey made a diving stop.
“My first few shots, my free kicks were not too good,” Paganelli said. “The last one just kind of settled down and it felt good. It was a good distance, right where I like to hit them from. They kind of loosely marked our players on the right side so I chipped it in and it worked out well.”
Just two minutes later, Kramarchuk struck to cap the dramatic comeback.
“We’re missing five guys on a very young team and we’ve [come back] in every single game so far,” Fordham Prep coach Pete McNamara said. “I thought we have some things to work on and we played the ball nicely at times. I think we should have gotten a few more goals. We didn’t shoot well at times, either.”
Regis (2-1-1) capitalized on a Fordham Prep defensive miscue to take the lead in the 21st minute. Goalkeeper Christian Quinttus chased down a loose ball along the far sideline, but Regis forward Will Eberts won the footrace, slid in to win the ball, turned and clinically placed the ball into the side netting.
“Coach told us he likes to come off his line a lot,” Eberts said of Quinttus. “I really put the pressure on and once I saw it was out of the net I thought I’d take my chances.”
Eberts added a second three minutes into the second half when he knocked over Paganelli and slotted the ball to Quinttus’ right.
The Raiders had opportunities to add to their lead, the best coming in the 51st minute when Kyle Sarnataro had Quinttus beat and slid the ball toward the open net. But defender Kyle O’Keefe made a sliding clearance off the line.
“A third goal with 10 minutes left is a nail in the coffin hopefully and you can look at things a bit differently,” Regis coach Vincent Catapano said. “You can play a little more defensive. … Defensively we just had to clean up some messes in the back and we didn’t do that today.”
A young Fordham Prep team showed poise once again rallied. Although the tie felt a bit more like a win with two late goals, Paganelli wasn’t leaving Randall’s Island happy.
“We’re definitely not satisfied with the tie,” he said. “That’s never been the way Mr. McNamara runs this team since Fordham’s played. It’s always that we want the win.”
Next up for Fordham Prep is a rematch of last year’s CHSAA Class A intersectional title game as Archbishop Molloy comes to Murphy Field.
“It’s exciting, can’t wait,” Paganelli said. “It’s going to be good.”
