In a game that was supposed to be a footnote to a great regular season, a match that was all but a foregone conclusion, the boys’ soccer team survived a scare at the Ross School, 4-3, to finish 2nd in League VIII. It was Senior Day for the Ravens, but after defeating their hosts 7-0 less than three weeks ago, the Brook was confident they could muzzle their opponent. They were a bit too overconfident.

The game started out well as Anuraag Sah got the Bears on the board first.  However, two goals by the Ravens followed, fueling the boisterous home crowd. The boys trailed at halftime but were assured they could easily right the ship. This hope was quickly replaced by fear and disbelief as they found themselves trailing 1-3 early in the second half. A painless punctuation to the season had rapidly become a hurdle that threatened to undo a fantastic league slate. If the Blue and White dropped the match it would allow Pierson to slide ahead of them in the rankings, forcing Stony Brook to travel to the east end for a Wednesday playoff game.

In order to avoid that it would take a supreme effort and, once again, the boys answered the call. Fighting off the pouring rain, Pablo Celis scored on a misplay by the keeper and Lukas Alijosius later equalized the match. Then, with eight minutes remaining, Sah sent a corner kick into the box and, after a brief scrum, captain Tyler Anderson buried a monumental goal to help the Brook escape. In hindsight, this may be a positive occurrence for the boys. What should be very apparent is how dangerous any team can be when we do not play our brand of soccer. The boys have a playoff tune-up on Saturday when they travel to Comsewogue for a scrimmage, then take on Pierson at home on Wednesday 11/3 @ 2:30pm.

---