While East Hampton Soccer Fever’s entry in the Wednesday evening men’s 7-on-7 soccer league is no more, its successor, the East Hampton Soccer Club, given some strong additions, looks promising indeed.
With Jorge Naula, who scored four goals for Maidstone Market in its 10-2 rout of Soccer Fever in July’s final, now on the roster, as well as Maicol Parra, a former Maidstone teammate of his, and Andres Mejia, the Soccer Club defeated Sag Harbor United 4-0 in the first of the three games played at East Hampton’s Herrick Park on Sept. 18.
However, despite the final tally, it wasn’t a walk in the park for East Hampton S.C. The teams battled head to head and the game was scoreless throughout the first 51 minutes before David Amaya broke the ice by one-touching a shot from about 12 yards out into the lower left corner of United’s goal.
Three minutes later, Gustavo Gutama tacked on another, and Naula followed suit on breakaways in the 55th and 60th minutes for the 4-0 final.
Sag Harbor United had lost its chief scoring threat, Jeremias Simon, the week before, as, after having scored four goals during the course of a 4-1 win over Tortorella, his nose and cheekbone were broken in a collision with two defenders. Minor Huertas, the league’s referee, said the injury, which put Simon out for the season, had been “an accident . . . it wasn’t intentional.”
Leslie Czeladko, the league’s manager, has asked on the league’s website, eastendsoccer.org, that its members help out with Simon’s medical costs. The operation alone reportedly cost $5,000, not counting his hospital stay.
Before the night’s second game began, one that matched Tortorella Pools against Hampton Construction, Czeladko agreed when a spectator said it didn’t seem as if there were any patsies anymore.
The Tortorella-H.C. game was hard fought too. Elvis Rojas and Cristian Gonzalez got off good shots for Tortorella in the first half, but Hampton Construction’s goalie, Danny Flores, parried both of them. And he stopped two or three other credible tries as well before the first half, which wound up scoreless, was over.
Ten minutes into the second half, however, Tortorella, thanks to a blast into the upper right corner by Rojas, was on the board. About 10 minutes later, Hampton Construction, owing to a goal by Kevin Flores — one of four Floreses on the team — tied it up at 1-1. Debin Josue Rivera got the assist.
But Tortorella wrested the lead back with five minutes left to play on a nifty exchange involving Leonel Uchupaille, Stiven Orrego, and David Rodriguez, who was the last to touch the ball. Rojas, from about 18 yards out, tacked on another with three minutes to go.
Kevin Flores brought Hampton Construction to within one again in the final half-minute, but Tortorella hung on for the 3-2 win.
The nightcap, between F.C. Tuxpan and Maidstone Market, the defending champion, and the league’s most successful entry over the years, wound up in a scoreless tie.
Maidstone was missing two players when the game began, though its defenders, namely Xavi Piedramartel, Antonio Padilla, and Alvaro Olaya, repeatedly parried Tuxpan’s attack.
Back to full strength by the halftime break, Maidstone went on the attack itself in the second frame, with Faustino Meza, a former Tuxpan player, coming close on a couple of occasions. With the clock almost having run down, Padilla was presented with a tantalizing opportunity, but as the ball rolled across the goal mouth he swung and missed.
In the first week of play, Tuxpan defeated Hampton Construction 2-1, Sag Harbor United, as aforesaid, defeated Tortorella Pools 4-1, and the East Hampton Soccer Club, thanks to goals by Amaya and Donte Donegal, defeated Maidstone Market 2-1. Alex Mesa, the goalie, scored for Maidstone on a penalty kick.
In related news, Luis Barrera said East Hampton’s over-30 team, Hampton United, which has added some players, like Mesa, Piedramartel, and Jose Almansa, to its lineup, soundly defeated the defending champion, Charruas 1950, 4-1 at Hampton United’s home field at Hampton Bays High School the previous Sunday.