Before a packed house at Amagansett’s Sportime Arena Saturday night, three futsal (indoor soccer) championship games were played, with F.C. Napoli, in the men’s open division, the East Hampton Futbol Club, in the women’s division, and Fenix Club, in the men’s 37-plus division, emerging as the trophy winners.
Club Union Juvenil got on the scoreboard first in the 37-plus game by way of a goal by Jose Gutierrez midway through the second half, but, with two and a half minutes left in regulation, Fenix Club’s Rodrigo Quizhpi tied it at 1-1. In the final minute, Quizhpi got off a hard shot that momentarily took the breath away from Klever Livisaca, Club Union Juvenil’s goalkeeper, who had made a diving save.
Ricardo Hurtado, the tallest player on the court, got Fenix Club off to a good start in the penalty shootout, beating Livisaca to the lower left corner of the cage. Marco Ayala of Club Union Juvenil followed suit, beating Jorge Marcillo, Fenix Club’s keeper, low to the right.
Juan Torres put Fenix up 2-1, and the score remained that way as Club Juvenil’s Edwin Atariguana shot wide, as Rodrigo Quizhpi’s shot hit off the left post, and as Marcillo parried a bid by Gutierrez. Goals by Jaime Pillco and Nectalio Penafiel sandwiched around one by Club Union Juvenil sent Fenix Club home a 4-2 winner. For his efforts, Marcillo was named the game’s most valuable player.
The women’s final matched two longtime rivals, Scorpion and East Hampton F.C., with the latter, thanks to a dramatic second-half goal by Sandra Lopez, coming out on top. Scorpion’s fortunes took a turn for the worse when Anna Strong, its chief scoring threat, had to come out with only four minutes gone in the second period, after colliding with an E.H.F.C. player. (Collisions in futsal are frequent, and the Arena’s tiled floor can be unforgiving.)
But even before Strong’s departure, the Futbol Club had been threatening: A hard shot by Jamieth Marin, who was to be the game’s M.V.P., banged off Scorpion’s crossbar two minutes before Strong went down.
With 13 minutes to play, a left-to-right pass from Jessica Barros found the advancing Lopez, who, from about 10 yards out, beat Scorpion’s keeper, Patricia Jimenes, with a high, hard shot that zipped into the cage inside the right post, just under the crossbar.
Afterward, Barros said of the Futbol Club and Scorpion, “We’re rivals. We’ve won championships before and so have they.”
John Romero’s East Hampton Futbol Club team went into the men’s final with a recent victory over previously undefeated Liga De Gulag under its belt, and also with a 4-3 win during the regular season over its opponent, F.C. Napoli, but it was not to be that night, as Napoli, which had in its lineup a number of strong players, including Brayan Moya, Donald Martinez, Eddy Juarez, and Lenis Vera, proved to be a little too strong for East Hampton F.C.
Jorge Naula almost broke the ice for the Futbol Club with seven minutes gone, but Napoli’s keeper, Christian Campuano, slid in between him and a cross from the left side of the court. Less than a minute later, Naula stole the ball and fired a shot that Campuano saved, and followed up not long after with a blast from inside midcourt that passed inches above the crossbar.
Martinez treated F.C. Napoli to a 1-0 lead in the 12th minute, beating East Hampton F.C.’s goalie, Alex Mesa, high into the left corner. Naula came right back with a tantalizing chip that almost made it into Napoli’s cage over Campuano’s outstretched hands.
Just before the halftime buzzer, Mesa slapped away a credible bid by Christian Neira, who had taken aim from midcourt.
The pace continued to be fast and furious in the second half — bodies were flying and both goalies came under fire. Vera went down, and stayed down for a while, midway through the period, but remained in the game — and a good thing too, for soon afterward he broke through F.C.’s defense and fed Martinez, the game’s M.V.P., for Martinez’s second goal of the night, the goal that effectively sealed the deal for F.C. Napoli, whose fourth championship this was.