Mattituck (18-2) played their best game of the season at Twin Towers Middle School in Middletown, N.Y and the scoreboard reflected it, reading: Mattituck 6, Skaneatles, 0 — and sending the Tuckers to the state final on Sunday.
It’s conceivable to think that a team gets better over the course of a season. It’s also conceivable to think that a team gets better throughout the playoffs.
But the deeper you get in the playoffs, the harder the opponent is. So even though you’re getting better, the physical difference between two teams in the state Class B semifinal should barely be noticeable. An unbiased spectator would have expected a close game.
It wasn’t.
“We played a 40-minute period of perfect soccer,” head coach Mat Litchhult said, referring to the first half in which the Tuckers scored five of their six goals. “We were all over them for those 40 minutes and I still don’t think they know what happened to them.”
Goals were scored by Walter Jacob, Paul Hayes, James Hayes, Axel Rodrigues-Canel, and Mario Arreola. Arreola scored twice.
Litchhult wasn’t even sure how his team was able to put together a performance like this.
“I think it was a driving force between having such a senior-laden class and having them up here before,” Litchhult said.
The Tuckers lost in the semifinals two years ago when most of the players on the team today were sophomores.
“They remembered what it was like to go home as sophomores,” Litchhult said. “And coming back this year, I think that big players rise up in big games and big moments. It was fun to watch.”
At this stage in the playoffs, Litchhult has never seen a performance like this before in all of his years coaching.
“There were a few times in the county championship where we had a good margin of victory but to be in the state semifinals and do it, we really opened up some eyes up here. To put up a 6-0 victory like we did is unheard of.”
They’ll play in the state final against Beekmantown (Section VII; 18-2-0) on Sunday at 10 a.m. Beekmantown was a 1-0 winner over Livonia in the semifinal game that followed. Mattituck was able to see what they would be up against next.
“We can expect a hard-working team,” Litchhult said. “They grinded out a 1-0 victory and were the better team. They deserved to win. So they’ll be excited, they’re in the state final. It is soccer, anything can happen. I think we come and we show up and we figure out our game plan, we figure out our strategy, and we execute like we did today, hopefully we come away with a state championship.”
