SWR boys’ and girls’ soccer seasons end in Section XI Class A playoffs
Shoreham-Wading River’s boys and girls varsity soccer teams saw their promising seasons come to abrupt ends in the playoffs.
The boys team came into this season with major expectations. Last season, under first-year coach Dani Braga, the Wildcats went undefeated through the regular season and made it all the way to the Suffolk County championship game, only to lose to John Glenn in double overtime. The goal was to make it there again.
This year, the Wildcats (9-4-1) closed out a rocky regular season by defeating Kings Park 2-1 on Oct. 20 and entered the Section XI Class A playoffs as the No. 4 seed.
Just four days later, the fifth-seeded Kingsmen got their revenge in the first round. In a very eventful first half, Kings Park scored three times, while Shoreham-Wading River managed two goals. Neither team scored in the second half, sending Kings Park to the next round with a 3-2 victory.
Seniors Zach Makarewicz and Evan DeGroot scored for the Wildcats in their final game. Makarewicz finished the season with 15 goals and 10 assists. DeGroot scored four times and assisted on eight. John Zoumas, the third member of the senior three-headed scoring dragon, recorded eight goals and 10 assists.
On the girls’ side, second-year SWR coach Lydia Kessel helped the Wildcats (11-5) earn a spot in the Section XI Class A playoffs as the No. 5 seed despite the graduation of last year’s key cogs Mia Mangano and Olivia Pesso.
SWR traveled to No. 4 Bayport-Blue Point for its playoff opener on Oct. 26 against a team that had beaten it 1-0 earlier in the season. This time around, however, the Wildcats took care of business, knocking off the Phantoms 3-0. Shealyn Varbero, Stamatia Almiroudis and Jordyn Albert all found the back of the net for the Wildcats.
Every game SWR lost this season ended 1-0, and that theme continued into the next round. Their run ended in the semifinals against top-seeded Harborfields, in a rematch from early October.
Harborfields’ Audrey Donnelly scored the lone goal off a corner kick by Aileen Collins just seven minutes into last Thursday’s game.
Senior captains Varbero and Almiroudis combined for nine goals and six assists this season. Brenna Molinelli returns next year after leading the team with 10 goals.
