Sachem East Boys Soccer Ties Brentwood

Undefeated Sachem East boys soccer faced their biggest test of the season Thursday afternoon when they traveled to face defending state champion and unbeaten Brentwood. Eighty minutes was not enough to decide the outcome and after two overtime periods the game finished in a 0-0 tie.

“This was a great test,” Sachem head coach Matt Stallone said. “To come here and get a tie is a great measure of where we want to be. It’s a tough place to play, it’s an incredible atmosphere. The sidelines are packed from corner flag to corner flag over there and emotions were running high.

"This is the classic Sachem-Brentwood rivalry that has been going on for years and it just got even more intense. We can’t wait for them to come to our place on the 25 of October.”

Brentwood controlled the pace of play in the early stages of the first half, something that Stallone attributed to the home crowd.

“They came out a little high with the home crowd and you want to just take the first punch, take what they give you the first 10-15 minutes,” he said. “We made some adjustments and I think we were the better team in the second half. We kept the ball down and they started knocking the ball long and getting out of their game. We made a few adjustments on the outside and then the middle of the field and that helped us settle down a little bit and get more opportunities.”

The best chance for the Indians came with 29 minutes remaining in the second. A shot hit the cross bar and bounced back into the box for another shot that was saved by Sachem goalkeeper William Silber.

Ten minutes later Brentwood had another corner and a flurry of chances, one of which was kept out of the goal with an obvious hand ball. The Flaming Arrows were able to keep the ball out of the goal and settled down.

Sachem’s best chance of the second half came on a shot just outside the 18-yard box by Jason Santos, which went sailing over the crossbar.

“I knew they were a good team,” Brentwood head coach Ron Eden said. “They wouldn’t be undefeated unless they were a good team. I thought we outplayed them and had the better chances – we hit the cross bar and had four or five shots that should have went in – but that’s soccer.”

Neither team had big chances until the end of the second overtime period as they both scrambled for the winner in the final seconds, but it was not meant to be. Stallone was still satisfied with the result for his team.

“Any time you come in to Brentwood and get a tie- obviously you want to win – but you come into this atmosphere and get a tie you have to be happy,” he said. “But we always want to be driven to be better and we can’t wait for them to come to our place in a couple of weeks.”