Boys Varsity Soccer Pounces on the Panthers of Edgemont

Rye Boys Varsity Soccer pounced on the Panthers of Edgemont Tuesday, winning in feline territory 4 – 1.

“This was a complete performance from our group,” said Rye Boys Varsity Soccer Coach Jared Small. “We scored in four different ways and defended with strong commitment from start to finish.”

Rye opened up the scoring in the 10th minute when Tommy Broderick received a corner kick from Ollie Lincoln near the top of the box and put a clean strike on goal. Minutes later, Lex Cox played a line-splitting pass from the left back third of the field to the right side of the attacking third. Broderick received the ball, beat a defender, and played the ball into Kaden Zion, whose left-footed blast was parried by Edgemont goalkeeper Will Agoglia.

With 10 minutes remaining in the first half, Rye extended the lead to 2-0 when Niklas Hoffman played a ball forward to Broderick. Racing up the right wing, Broderick played a ball into the middle of the pitch to Joseph Chai. Chai received with his left away from the pressure of the opposing defender and then used his second touch to finish with his left foot into the lower right corner.

Rye had opportunities to add more goals in the waning minutes of the first half, with Kieran Traynor taking a quick and clever restart to set up Broderick for a near miss. Takumi Otani also had an ambitious left footed strike from the top of the 18 that sailed just high and wide. Just prior to halftime, Rye’s Tilman Oberbannscheidt punched a perfectly weighted left footed pass over the backline of Edgemont for Liam Harrington, whose one time shot was deflected wide by Agoglia.

Rye started on the front foot in the second half with a Broderick penalty kick goal to put Rye up 3-0 in the 44th minute before Edgemont’s Leonardo Jung returned the favor with an upper-90 strike on a 35-yard free kick. The second half featured a fair share of promising attacking sequences and strong team defending, with Chase Pepper, Peter Wilmot, Alex Lee, and Fin Kearney applying significant pressure on the right side of the pitch.

Kasen Scarperi made his mark on the match, first weaving through a tight space in the box to fire a left footed shot that was deflected by an Edgemont defender. Minutes later, Scarperi outjumped two defenders to get his head on a ball in the box. The ball bounced once and Chai outjumped his own defender to head the ball into the back of the net for a 4-1 lead.

Rye’s defending unit stifled the Edgemont attack in the final 15 minutes, with the backline of Sjef Smits, Zac Ramsey, and Mauro Flores snuffing out any potential scoring opportunities. Alex van der Voort put in a strong shift on the left side and in the middle of the pitch, and goalkeeper Aydan Breen subbed on at a crucial moment in the match to prevent the Garnets from surrendering any more goals. Breen was calm with his feet and strong with his communication to help the squad see out the match.

The Gemstones are now 8 – 2. Thursday Varsity hosts the other Panthers (from Ardsley) for a 5:00pm game (watch it).