The 2023 season officially got underway with the home opener on September 8th against cross town rival Valley Stream South High School. After some thunderstorms passed through and delayed the start of the match 20 minutes, the Owls and Falcons took the field and got their 2023 campaigns underway.

With high hopes and a quartet of returning county award recipients, the Owls fielded a side that saw a number of new additions which proved to be a hurdle the inexperienced Owls struggled with early. VS South’s Matt Shapira netted all three of his goals past Lynbrook’s sophomore goal keeper Jake Prince (5 saves) in the first 25 minutes on assists from Dangelo Vallejo and Ray Guaman and a fortunate converted penalty kick. The Owls found themselves in a hole being 3 back and battled their way through the remaining 15 minutes of the first half.

Halftime saw Coach Berlin settle his side as the nerves and concerns of the team would need to be put behind them if they were to climb back into the match. The second half proved to be a different tale as the Owls only needed 2 minutes to get on the score board. Junior Marco Pantano took the ball into the left side of the Falcon’s goal area and slotted a pass across the box to Junior Mike Werzinger who netted the Owls first goal of the game and young season past goal keeper Ethan Michel (7 saves). The goal seemed to energize the home team and it looked like they were starting to find their groove. Unfortunately, the Falcons tallied their fourth and final goal in the 46th minute when Adrian Rodriguez beat the Owl’s defense off a pass from Sebastian Quezada. The no quit attitude in the Owls kicked into high gear as they scored again the 49th minute when Junior Eddie Stradowski served the ball into the Valley Stream goal box and Junior Sam Moscheni headed it in to bring the Lynbrook side within 2.

The Lynbrook team had 30 minutes left to find their game and although they generated some wonderful scoring chances and controlled much of the remaining play, they were unable to score again and the game ended at 4-2.

The Owls now sit at 0-1-0 and are looking up at what seems to be a competitive group of teams in conference; including Valley Stream South. The Varsity Boys will now practice for a couple of days and with the first game behind them, hope that any residual nervousness gives way to playing a more complete game as they travel to Floral Park to take on the Knights who are off to a hot start with 2 wins.

Game time is 4:45 at Floral Park HS.

Additional game photos located on Photo site:

https://lhssoccer.jalbum.net/v.%20VS%20South%20%202023/