On this day six years ago…

Less than one week after defeating Mattituck on their hallowed ground to clinch a share of 1st place in League VIII, the Bears had a battle in their final regular season game. Greenport came to campus and the Bears needed a win in order to clinch a share of the League Championship with the Tuckers. The game was tightly contested and eighty minutes of scoreless soccer ticked off of the clock. Then, with 10 minutes remaining, the Porters struck a mighty blow to the Bear’s title hopes by scoring the game’s first goal. Even if the boys could find a way to tie the game, a draw would allow Mattituck to leapfrog the Brook and win League VIII.

With probability and time working against them, the Blue and White went about resurrecting their Championship dreams. Minutes after Greenport’s dagger, Matt Woodley equalized the game, courtesy of an assist by Chris Higgins, sending the crowd into a frenzy. They could not have known, but the best was yet to come. With three minutes left, Higgins struck again, this time scoring off of a corner kick to vault the Bears into a thrilling, impossible, magical 2-1 lead. The Stony Brook bench erupted in disbelief, the crowd was rendered delirious and the boys charged upfield with the 123rd League Championship in school history firmly in their grasp. It was an epic victory, a true miracle, and as Mike Hickey ’05 remembers,

It was the best eight minutes of soccer, ever.

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