Fox Lane boys soccer wins overtime thriller to advance to semifinals

Lucas Ormazabal (center) celebrates with Fredy Contreras (9) and Christian Mejia Lopez after Ormazabal scored the golden goal to give the Foxes an overtime playoff victory over Harrison. JIM MACLEAN PHOTOS

By JIM MACLEAN 

The sun was setting, but Fox Lane senior captain Lucas Ormazabal was determined to not let it set on the Foxes’ season. 

It’s playoff time — you win and advance or you go home and the season is over. Both teams knew what was at stake as Fox Lane hosted Harrison in the quarterfinals on Oct. 26, and the two teams battled into overtime.

About halfway through the second overtime period, Ormazabal made his move, beat a defender and then drilled a low shot into the goal to give Fox Lane a 2-1 victory as the Foxes advanced to the semifinals. (Fox Lane lost its semifinal game on Wednesday 3-1 at Mahopac.)

“I just thought I’m getting this ball and I’m going to make something happen and get off a shot,” Ormazabal said of the winning play. “I saw that ball going in and thought we did it, that was such an amazing moment for this team, we really fought hard, we were down 1-0, and it took a lot of grit from all the boys and we did it and I’m just really proud of all of these boys on this team.”

Fox Lane entered the game as the No. 4 seed hosting the number five-seed Huskies. Harrison is the defending Section 1 Class AA champions, and the Huskies advanced to the state semifinals last year. Harrison came out strong and controlled the action in the first half.

Juan Acosta controls at midfield for the Foxes.

Luke Valenti made several big saves in goal for the Foxes to keep the game locked in a scoreless tie, but Harrison was able to find the goal on a long shot by Christian Antolino with 2:41 left in the half for a 1-0 lead.

“They scored late in the first half, an unbelievable shot in the top corner, but we were losing the 50-50 areas pretty much the entire half,” Fox Lane coach Tom Bond said. “We didn’t have the same energy they had, I felt we were timid and they were generating the chances and we had to compete harder and we started doing that in the second half.”

Fox Lane picked up the pressure in the second half, but the Huskies were up to the challenge on defense and held the lead as time was winding down.

Finally, with 4:54 left in regulation, Juan Acosta took a cross from Fernando Haro and Acosta was able to beat the Harrison goalie with a low shot to even up the score at 1-1 and force overtime.

“I just kicked it and it got through and tied it up,” Acosta said of the goal. “I was very happy, proud of my team, we’re a family, and everyone worked hard and we did it.”

That set the stage for a tense overtime, and it didn’t start well for the Foxes as Evan Cattanach was lost to an injury in the opening minutes, and then Kevin Lopez also went out with an injury and Fox Lane was missing two important starters on defense.

Valenti had to make two saves early in the second overtime period, and then the Foxes went on the attack with Christian Mejia Lopez working the ball down the line into Harrison territory where Ormazabal was able to gain control and work his way toward the goal to get off his game-winning shot.

Goalie Luke Valenti leaps to make a big save.

“For 100 minutes Harrison kept him quiet, but Lucas is so talented, a tough player to corral and he made something happen,” Bond said of Ormazabal. “I felt Juan (Acosta) played an awesome game today. He stepped up at midfield and controlled the pace and finished. I don’t think Evan (Cattanach) has come off the field this year so that was a big loss on defense, but it has to be a next man up mentality in the playoffs. Max Cohen moved back from center mid and everyone who came in stepped up and we move on.”

Fox Lane opened the playoffs with a 6-0 win in the first round on Friday at home over Yonkers. Fredy Contreras had the hat trick with three goals and he also had an assist. Lucas Ormazabal scored two goals and had an assist. Rion Krasniqi scored a goal and had an assist. Cohen and Cristian Ormazabal each added an assist.

With the two victories, Fox Lane improved to 11-2-4 overall and the Foxes advanced to the semifinals of the Section 1 Class AA tournament. The Foxes were set to face top-seed Mahopac on the road in the semifinals on Wednesday, with the winner advancing to the championship game on Saturday, Oct. 31 at Lakeland High.