Boys soccer: Wolves and Foxes settle for a tie

Porter Bysshe (9) celebrates with Dennis Galvan after Bysshe scored the goal for John Jay in 1-1 tie against Fox Lane. Alex Bond heads the ball at midfield for the Wolves. Fox Lane goalie Drew Bagley makes a save in front of Porter Bysshe. John Jay’s Sagi Ohana tries to work his way through Fox Lane defenders Eion McIntyre (6) and Diego Martinez-Perez. Ryan Joseph makes his move for Fox Lane. Jim Maclean photos

By JIM MACLEAN 

With the sun setting and time running down, both teams were pressing with urgency locked in a 1-1 tie as John Jay hosted rival Fox Lane in varsity boys soccer Sept. 15.

It was a game of two halves as Fox Lane scored early and controlled the first half, but John Jay answered with a goal early in the second half and kept the pressure on for most of the final half right down to the final seconds with a corner kick opportunity.

However, both defenses answered the challenge and the two teams had to settle for a tie on the AP Farms field at John Jay with no lights and the sun setting.

“Competitive game against a very good side, we defended well and created some chances, a good tough game,” said John Jay coach Elliott O’Sullivan. “A bit frustrating to not have overtime because I think we were pushing for the winner, and sometimes you have to settle for a tie. To play against a talented team like that from a bigger school, I think we matched them well and maybe outplayed them in the second half and I’m proud of our effort. We just couldn’t get that one final break.”

Fox Lane coach Mike Tomassi also felt the game came down to effort, and he agreed that John Jay had the stronger effort in the second half as the Wolves pressured the Foxes. With a talented roster of veterans from a team that advanced to the Section 1 Class A finals last year, Tomassi wants his team to know that everyone will be gunning for them this year and they have to match the effort.

“Credit to them, they showed up today and played hard and that’s obviously a talented team,” Fox Lane coach Mike Tomassi said of John Jay. “Today came down to effort and our approach wasn’t good from the start and that’s credit to them. We were retreating that second half. It’s hard to play if you don’t come ready to play and hopefully we’ll use this as a learning experience. Based on our success last year, we are going to get everybody’s best effort, they’re a little more amped up to play us and we have to bring it every game.”

Fox Lane got off to a good start as Gavin Morales scored an unassisted goal just five minutes into the first half and the Foxes settled in with a 1-0 lead. Both teams had their chances, but that would be the only goal of the half.

John Jay responded right away in the second half as Porter Bysshe scored less than two minutes into the half and the Wolves gained the momentum and maintained it throughout much of the second half.

With Alex Bond and Sagi Ohana playing a strong game at midfield, John Jay controlled the action and had numerous corner kicks and scoring opportunities in the Fox Lane end of the field. The Foxes countered with speed and also created opportunities, but both defenses responded with Fox Lane goalie Drew Bagley and John Jay goalie Marc Fein not allowing any other ball to enter the nets.

“Back-to-back games with goals for Porter, nice to see your strikers scoring goals,” O’Sullivan said of Bysshe. “Bond and Ohana run the show and they controlled the midfield. Big improvement for us from last year, a lot of returners with experience this year and we’re looking forward to it.”

John Jay is off to a 3-1-1 start on the season after settling for the tie, while Fox Lane is still undefeated at 2-0-1. The Foxes defeated Lakeland and Clarkstown South, both of them by a 1-0 score, and Tomassi feels the defense has been strong and the offense needs to get rolling with just three goals in three games.

“It’s still early and we have to figure some things out, our defense has been phenomenal and our offense has to catch up,” explained Tomassi. “We have to do better offensively, we’re getting good chances and have to start capitalizing.”