Pierson/Bridgehampton Boys Soccer Loses Class C Regional Final to Haldane

After all was said and done, seniors Halsey Burton, Gavin Gilbride and Javi Tubatan all took one last long look at the turf at Yorktown High School on Saturday evening. They, along with their teammates, left everything they had out on that field, but it simply wasn’t enough.

Haldane (Section I-Dutchess, Putnam, Rockland, Westchester counties) defeated Pierson/Bridgehampton boys soccer, 2-0, in the Class C Regional Final, bringing an end to the season for the county champion Whalers. The Blue Devils clinched their first-ever berth into the state semifinals with the win.

“Last year we had a great season. We had a lot of hype coming around us coming into this season,” the Whaler’s goalie Gilbride said. “We had high expectations for ourselves. We thought we’d maybe get to the final four [or] we’d get to the game like this. Our whole season came down to preparing for this game.

“I guess we could say the same for Haldane, too, because they absolutely worked their asses off, played their best game,” he continued. “It sucks to lose, but in the grand scheme of things, the better team won. We did our best. Nothing more we could do.”

After a scoreless first half, which Pierson head coach Dan White appreciated, being that his team was going into the wind, Haldane pressured from the opening whistle of the second half. Just over 10 minutes in, the Blue Devils sent the ball into Pierson’s defensive third that senior defender Brandon Guanga took a bit of an awkward step to, allowing Haldane junior Max Westphal to grab possession of the ball all alone with Gilbride.

The goalie was caught in between whether or not he should stay on his line or come out to meet Westphal, to try and force him into making a shot he didn’t like. He opted for the latter option, and Westphal, to his credit, was able to flick the ball over Gilbride’s head with just enough on it to cross the line for the game’s first goal with 28:43 remaining.

White called it an unfortunate play.

“Brandon took a bad step,” he said. “He couldn’t get out of his step. The ball went over his head, and so when Gavin saw that, he came out. Brandon wasn’t going to recover, so if Gavin stayed in the net he would have been in trouble. He came out to make a play, force the kid to make a great shot, and he did.”

Gilbride said it was one of those things that he’d never get on his teammate about.

“I’ll never get on anybody about a physical error,” he said. “Just like with baseball, I wouldn’t get on anybody about physical errors because they happen. Not everybody is perfect. It’s mental stuff. Brandon, mentally, had the right idea, just physically he couldn’t get there. I saw it, I tried to pick him up, came out hard and [Westphal] made a great play over me, honestly. He earned it, they earned it.”

With just over 15 minutes remaining, Gilbride made a save, one of his nine on the day, on a shot by Haldane junior Brandt Robbins, leading to a corner kick for the Blue Devils, one of their five in the game. Off the corner, the ball came out to Westphal, who noticed Gilbride being screened and scored in the opposite corner of the goal to make it a 2-0 game and eventual final.

White didn’t think his team beat itself and gave credit to Haldane for a well played game.

“They’re good in the back, pass the ball very well, tough in the midfield,” he said. “They ran down some of our fastest players. Like, Anthony Ponzini made a great run, he’s probably the fastest kid in our league, and they had a kid who was faster than him. Nothing you can do about that.”

White, after his first season coaching the team after longtime coach Peter Solow retired at the conclusion of last season, appreciated the hard work that many of the players, particularly the seniors, put into the season. He does think the team’s success will continue into next season with players like Quinn Tanner, who missed Saturday’s game with a concussion, returning, along with Wilmer Martinez, Sebastian Beech and Ryder Esposito. But White gave a lot of credit, almost all of it, to many of the departing seniors.

“They’re the reason they had a good season. Like I’ve said, it’s not like I’ve been coaching them for 10 years,” he said. “Our season was based on their ability to perform, and that’s what they did.”

Gilbride, Burton, Guanga, Ponzini and Tubatan are just half of the seniors graduating, joining Enzo Merola, Sawyer Davey, Nicky Badilla and Robert Stewart. Many of the players were on last year’s team that also reached the Regional Final and they’re certainly going to miss their time together.

“I’ve been with these boys since elementary school,” Burton said, through tears. “You always know it’s going to end, but you never prepare for it, and then it just hits you.

“This is probably the most fun I’ve ever had,” Tubatan added. “I’ve been playing with these guys since I was 6 … you have an entire town behind you, all eyes are on you. We’ll never have that again.”

Gilbride said it was actually Burton and Tubatan who convinced him to join the team two years ago and he said it was one of the best decisions he ever made.

“I didn’t think I’d come to enjoy a sport I never played so much in my life,” he said. “I’ve played baseball my whole life. People ask me, what do you prefer? Baseball or soccer? The logical answer should be baseball, but it comes close. These boys, best friends, playing soccer and our season, giving it our all, it comes close. It’s amazing what this sport can do for someone.”