As Tropical Storm Hermine continued to churn off the coast of Long Island, the boys’ soccer team opened the 2016 season yesterday with a resounding 5-2 victory over Greenport.

As waves of horizontal rain and gusts of wind lashed Fitch Field, the Bears unleashed their own onslaught on the Porter defense just three minutes into the game. The first scoring sequence began when Mac Bohuny sent a long clear to midfield where Jai Narain flicked the ball forward with a deft header. Alvaro Martinez Torres ran onto the ball and one-touched it past a charging defender. With time and space, he carried it down the left flank and unleashed a blast that forced a diving stop from the keeper, then banged home the ricochet into the right side netting.

Less than 10 minutes later, Martinez Torres struck again, thanks to a great pass to space by David Choi. Martinez Torres ran onto the ball and lofted a righty shot from just inside the box over the head of the sliding keeper that found the back of the net. As the skies opened, another wave of Bear offense surged forward. Less than five minutes after Martinez Torres struck for his second goal, Gazie Moghalu won a 50-50 ball off of a Stony Brook throw in before uncorking a low rocket from the top right corner of the box that skipped just inside the left post. The Bears pushed the lead to 4-0 with 20:47 left in the half when Moghalu gave a deft pass to Choi who touched the ball past the charging keeper before finishing with a lefty shot on an open net.

The Porters showed great fight in the second half, tallying their first goal early on and playing a more aggressive brand of defense. They had a chance to halve their deficit early in the second half, but could only watch as a dangerous shot sailed wide of the net. The Blue and White put the game out of reach with 20:30 left in the second half when Narain beat the offside trap and ran onto a pass from Martinez Torres. The Greenport keeper was caught in no man’s land in the middle of the box as Narain teed off from 25 yards, chipping a shot over his head and into the goal. Greenport showed resilience throughout, despite their deficit and the conditions, and scored a second goal in the waning minutes.

The Bears showed excellent physicality and won the majority of 50-50 balls. Their possession on offense was also impressive. In their first game action of the season there was plenty to be excited about.

The Bears return to the pitch on Thursday afternoon at 4:30pm in a home match-up with league rival, Southold.

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