Pete Fouchet had just kicked the best shot of the game. It was in stoppage time, meaning the refs controlled the timer on their person. The scoreboard read: 2:00 and stayed that way for the duration. Southold (14-3-1) had played a fierce game to that point, coming alive in the second half against the attack-minded Section I representative, Schechter in the Class B Sub-Regional. Chances came and went. Fouchet had chances but not like this. This was going to break the 0-0 tie in the final minute of regulation play.
To the upper left corner it went, sure of its path. Everyone and their mother thought it was going in. Red-dressed Southolders jumped to their feet on the kick.
Schechter’s goalkeeper, Noah Dunn, was at the opposite side of the net.
“Definitely going in,” Settlers head coach Andrew Sadowski was saying to himself. “Definitely.”
The ball destined for glory fell short as Dunn leaped across the net knocking the ball away with both hands.
“I never expected him to get to it, let alone catch it,” Sadowski said.
In that final moment, Schechter quickly countered. A ball sent through the middle squirted through.
“I can’t believe that squirted through,” Sadwoski said, in complete shock afterward. “Still can’t believe it.”
It got behind the defense and Miles Ogihara was the recipient with nothing but daylight in front of him. It was just him against Southold’s Dylan Claussen.
Asked what more Claussen could have done in the situation, Sadowski said, “Nothing.”
Ogihara placed the ball in the bottom left hand corner of the net, just grazing the post and in to win the game 1-0 on Wednesday night at Lakeland High School.
“On a square post, that bounces out,” Sadowski said.
Had two minutes elapsed? Hard to say. It’s the ref’s call as far as when the game will go into overtime.
“That goalie is fantastic,” Sadowski said. “We just couldn’t put one in the back of the net. We couldn’t.”
But Southold could not have played a better game. A standing ovation following the game was well-deserved. The only thing they could have done better is score but sometimes you can hit your best ball and still somehow come up empty.
“He couldn’t have hit it better,” Sadowski said again.
It’s a season to remember for Southold, an undefeated season that simply ended too early.
SoutholdLOCAL photos by Michael Hejmej The NextGEN gallery with ID/slug: “215” does not exist or is empty.
