By JIM MACLEAN
The last time a Fox Lane boys varsity soccer team stepped on to a field to play in a Section 1 championship game none of the current Foxes had been born yet. Neither had their coach; 45 years is a long time.
Yet there were the Foxes, Sunday afternoon, Nov. 3, lining up for the Section 1 Class AA championship game at Lakeland High. Fox Lane came into the tournament as the sixth-seed, and the Foxes upset rival Horace Greeley, the number three seed, in the quarterfinals. Fox Lane then defeated number two-seed Peekskill in the semifinals 3-1 on Halloween.
Now, Fox Lane would be facing the No. 1-seed Tappan Zee in the championship game. Tappan Zee struck early in the first minute of the game for a 1-0 lead, but the rest of the way it went back-and-forth. However, the magic ran out for Fox Lane and that would be the only goal scored as the Foxes suffered a 1-0 setback to finish the year at 12-5-3 overall.
Considering the seniors on the roster started their high school career with the varsity struggling through a winless season four years ago, the Foxes have come a long way to get to within one goal of winning a Section 1 championship.
“Last time Fox Lane went to the finals was 1979, it’s been a long time since this happened,” said senior star Kenny Mejia-Lopez. “We were the underdogs, but we showed how Fox Lane soccer can be one of the top programs. Four years ago we were winless, now we’re almost sectional champs. Not the result we wanted, but it’s life and we can keep our heads up.”
Fox Lane coach Mike Tomassi agreed, and despite the loss he had nothing but praise for the effort put in during the finals and all season long by his team.
“We had a great year, to be in this spot here, to lose a tough game playing our hearts out against one of the best teams around, I’m proud of these guys, they did nothing but work hard all year and this game could have gone either way,” Tomassi said after the loss. “It’s been a long time since we’ve been in this spot. I took over and we went 2-14, then the COVID year we were winless. It’s been a slow build year after year, great people stepping up to get this program in the right direction. This senior class was the first group, so thankfully they get to go out like this making it to the finals. They really changed the direction of our program.”
In the championship game, Fox Lane would be taking on a Tappan Zee team led by the leading scorer in Section 1, senior striker Brady Jacobs. Just 54 seconds into the game, Jacobs showed what he can do as he scored a goal at 39:06 for a 1-0 lead.
That would be the only goal he would score as the Fox Lane defense stood tall the rest of the way with goalies Drew Bagley and Eli Daglio coming up with 13 saves overall to keep it 1-0. Hannes Fernqvist drew the assignment of marking Jacobs and limited his scoring chances the rest of the way. Senior captain Connor Cox and junior Leonardo Crisostomo-Garcia also did their job on defense. Tappan Zee has scored a lot of goals all season long, many coming on long throw-ins from Thomas Campanella to the tall Jacobs, but the Foxes were up to the challenge with Bagley and Daglio both having to fight through the crowd in front of the goal for high saves.
Daglio, a senior, made a flurry of saves in the second half with about 10 minutes left to play right in front of the goal to keep it 1-0. He was a starter on varsity as a sophomore and he knows how far the team has come to get to this point.
“For me it’s always pressure in goal, but our defense did a great job clearing out everything they could,” said Daglio. “What really matters is how far we’ve come. It hurts a little less knowing we accomplished so much and we left this program in a better place than when we started in 10th grade. I’m just so proud of my team for how far we’ve come and I’m excited to see what they can do in the future.”
To get to the finals Fox Lane scored a 3-1 win over Peekskill with Ryan Joseph, Mejia-Lopez and Fredy Contreras each scoring a goal. That set up the finals showdown against Tappan Zee, and Tomassi is excited about the future after the strong showing the Foxes made to almost win it all.
“For the most part, they’re all coming back, other than Kenny, Connor and Eli, everybody else on the field is coming back,” explained Tomassi. “Kenny was impressive all year, I think he’s one of the top five players in Section 1, he was a great leader and had a great year, but Fox Lane soccer is not going anywhere. We have a lot of talented guys coming back and they’ll use this as motivation. It was a fun week, and these guys want to do the right thing and work hard and we’ll be back.”
Jim MacLean Photos
Left to right, Hannes Fernqvist heads the ball away from Tappan Zee’s Brady Jacobs in title game.Kenny Mejia-Lopez beats a defender at midfield.Fox Lane senior captain Connor Cox tries to save a ball along the line.