Southampton Girls Soccer Defeats Babylon In Possible County Final Preview

The Southampton girls soccer team suffered its first loss of the season, 3-2, in heartbreaking fashion at Babylon back on March 17, a game in which the Mariners were leading 2-0 at halftime. Southampton then lost a 1-0 game to Elwood/John Glenn, then suffered a 2-1 defeat at Center Moriches, a team the Mariners had beaten at home earlier in the season.

For all intents and purposes, Southampton was in a bit of a rough patch in the middle of its season, something almost all teams go through, but, with league-leader Babylon stepping on to their home turf on Saturday, the Mariners could use the opportunity to get their season back on track and quell any doubt that they’re a team that should be taken seriously when it comes to vying for a county title.

They did just that.

Southampton shut out Babylon, 2-0, putting itself right back in the conversation as one of the top Class B teams in Suffolk County.

“I feel like the other teams will view us as more of a danger because we came out with our goal for the county title and I feel like that first loss at Babylon was a little hard,” Southampton sophomore Juliette Archer, who scored the first goal of Saturday's game, said. “We just proved ourselves today that we can really make it.”

Archer gave the Mariners a 1-0 lead just a few minutes into the game when she followed up an initial shot by fellow sophomore Emily Zukosky.

“It was basically all Emily,” Archer said of the play. “She got the ball in the middle and she was just going through that tough defense, and I saw that I really needed to follow up because I knew that goalie wouldn't have the [angle].

“I’m glad I did because I just followed it right to the back of the net.”

Both Archer and Zukosky noted that it was key their team not get too excited about the quick lead as to not take their focus off the game. Eventually it was Zukosky who gave the Mariners a little bit a of breathing room in the second half.

With about 23 minutes remaining in the game, senior tri-captain Carli Cameron drew a penalty just outside of Babylon’s box, awarding the Mariners a free kick. Zukosky took the kick and sent the ball high into the box and into the top left corner of the goal to make it a 2-0 game.

“I was just looking to get it towards the goal,” Zukosky said. “I didn't really have any expectations it was going to go in, but then it went in. I was a little shocked at first, but then I was very happy, and I kept playing the game trying to get another one.”

“I tell them when they shoot from that kind of angle and that distance to look for the far post, because if they miss there’s always a girl there to put it in, if there’s not they put it in the back of the net,” Southampton head coach Sean Zay said. “[Zukosky] hit it perfect and put it right where it needed to be.”

Zay and his players said that second goal took a lot of pressure off the team and it allowed the defense to really dig its heels in against a Babylon offense that had only been shutout once this season in what was a scoreless, non-league tie to Sachem North.

Zay praised his defense — which on Saturday consisted of juniors Gabriella Arnold, Hallie Beeker, Caroline Luss, sophomore Hailey Cameron and senior goalie Kendra Jimenez — for coming up big throughout the game.

“The way we’ve been playing defense — my assistant coach, Coach [Davin] Johnson, has been working with the defense like crazy — we’ve just gotten very, very solid,” he said. “We do not give up goals, unless it’s off corner kicks or set pieces. We don't give up goals in open play. We were able to shut them down like that today.”

Not to be lost in the win was Jimenez’s play in goal. She was credited with 10 saves on Saturday but was stout on a number of set pieces and corner kicks, especially late in the game when Babylon set in a number of balls from the corner that she snuffed out.

Jimenez is one of only two seniors on the team and has been playing since she was a freshman. She spoke after the game about how she’s worked extremely hard to get to the point of being the team’s starting goalie, but she praised her teammates and coaches for supporting her as well.

“My defenders have been nothing but good to me,” she said. “I mean, those girls back there have given me more confidence.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment. It’s my turn,” Jimenez added. “Also, I promised Mr. Zay we’re going to go to playoffs, we’re going to win a county title, finally. [The team] has improved so much. We’ve had that goal ever since I was a freshman. Mr. Zay, he’s done a wonderful job with this program and I’m really happy to be called one of his goalkeepers.”

What’s even more impressive about Southampton’s latest victory is that it did it without two starters in junior tri-captain Ellie Avallone and junior Isabelle Palumbo. Both missed Saturday’s game and the 6-0 victory at Smithtown Christian on March 31 due to COVID-19 contact tracing. Avallone and Palumbo were in close contact with a Mattituck/Southold/Greenport player who tested positive last week.

Zay said both players will return for what is another big game and the regular-season finale at Glenn this Thursday, March 8, and for the team’s playoff push.

“We’re really jelling as a team,” he said. “It was nice to see some of the girls that come off the bench really put in an effort like that. It’s nice to see that I can go to my bench and get a lot of speed, a lot of talent. It’s a testament to all of the work that we’re doing.”

Babylon, Glenn, Southampton and Center Moriches will all make up Suffolk’s ‘B’ bracket when playoffs start later this month, with the county final scheduled for April 17. Where which team will be seeded is still to be determined, partly because of the Mariner’s victory over the Panthers on Saturday and also because of the final games yet to be played. But Zay knows this isn’t the last that his team will hear from Babylon.

“This win is nice, but we want this win on the seventeenth. We’re looking to win this one when it’s in the county finals because we will definitely see this team again.”