Lead Stories, Sports

Rye tops Eastchester, wins league title

If the coronavirus-impacted sports schedule this fall has been anything but typical, one constant has been the high level of play from the Rye boys’ soccer team. On Nov. 7, the undefeated Garnets (7-0-2) clinched their second-straight league title with a decisive win over Eastchester, utilizing a fast start to down the Eagles 3-1.

In the first meeting between the two squads this year, held on Oct. 30, Rye was forced to rally back from a 2-0 halftime deficit to come away with a 3-2 victory. On Friday, it was the Garnets who struck first, as first half goals by Luke Burnham and Nate Collins put the Eagles in an early 2-0 hole.

“We wanted to be on the front foot and play with a really strong team mentality,” Rye head coach Jared Small said.  “When you have that, things tend to go your way.”

Jonas van Beurden chases down a ball against Eastchester on Nov. 7. The Garnets topped Eastchester 3-2 to win their second-straight league title.

Although Eastchester managed to cut the lead to 2-1, the Garnets were able to extend their margin in the second half on a goal by Alex Vollbrecht. Despite the win—and the perfect record— Small said he would still like to see his team be able to create more separation from their opponents in the scoring department.
“We’re a good possession-based team, but we need to do a better job of putting that stamp on the match; tonight I thought it was pretty even and generally we would like to have the upper hand,” he said. “On the flip side, though, our team defending has been unbelievable.”

With the win, the Garnets completed the league-play portion of the schedule, winning back-to-back league titles for the first time since the 1978-79 seasons. They will finish the regular season with tilts against Port Chester and Mamaroneck this week—after press time—before a modified postseason begins on Nov. 16. Postseason play will be divided into large-school and small-school regional divisions, with Class A Rye slotting into the Southern Westchester division alongside league opponents as well as perennial Class AA powers like Mamaroneck and New Rochelle.

“The way we look at it is that there are two components to the season; there’s the league component and winning a league championship is a tremendous accomplishment, and now we’ve got to look at the postseason,” Small said. “We just want to continue to get better and make sure that our next game is always better than our last.”

 

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