Clarkstown South Boys Soccer Comes From Behind to Defeat Suffern, 2-1

The Clarkstown South Vikings came back in the second half to take home a 2-1 victory over the Mounties of Suffern Tuesday afternoon.

Despite giving up an early 1-0 lead to the Mounties in the first, the Vikings' resolve never wavered, as they came back to score two in the second to win the game in regulation time.  It was an aggressive and exciting offensive match Tuesday, with both teams mounting excellent drives to get numerous scoring opportunities.  In the end, it came down to who wanted the win more and who was able to summon up the intensity to get it.

"We struggled with passing the ball to the blue shirts," said Mounties Head Coach Bob Walkley. "We also struggled with being committed to getting to the ball.  South was more committed and driven to win.  We had two good drives in the second where we could've scored, but we weren't committed enough. We played a little more committed in the second, but South played even more committed and we couldn't raise our intensity level."

The first half was characterized by solid back and forth play between the two aggressive offenses.  Though both sides displayed some very good ball movement and patient play-making, overall, these drives were stopped by good, hustle defense.  Finally though, Suffern made good on one of these drives. 

After taking the ball deep into South territory, they set up a very solid play.  With the ball on the wing, they spread out well, with five players in good position to give them many good options.  Christian Dominguez got the ball directly in front of the goal after the cross was deflected by South and placed it good and high in the net to put his team up 1-0.  That would be the only goal of the half.

Both sides came out in the second half with growing intensity.  Despite solid efforts and close calls for both teams, it would be South that found the net.  First they scored off a great drive, created by Chuong Tran.  Tran got the ball off a pass from Kevin Lowenwirth, after which he dribbled through the defense to put in the goal and tie it 1-1 with just under four minutes gone in the half.

After the game, Tran spoke about his and his team's reaction after the tying goal.  "To be honest, it was just like tie it and move on to get the winning goal," said Tran.  He added,  "It gave us a lot of energy.  In the second half, we stepped up the defense and played hard to get that second goal."

After getting the energizing goal, it was South that had more success on drives, but could not find the net.  Suffern had some very solid drives, but finished timidly on many of them, so they could not retake the lead.  So, while both sides got some good opportunities, they had trouble finishing, and the game went without another goal until about three quarters of the way through the half.

With about 12 minutes left in the game, South drove in hard on the fast break.  Tran was in again on the play, however, this time he passed off to Kurt Diffley, who shot and scored the game winner to give South a 2-1 lead.  While Suffern came back at them to get some solid opportunities to tie it, they could not put it in and so the Vikings came away with their fourth victory of the season.

"We came out a little more intense in the second than in the first half," said the Vikings' Head Coach Michael Ludwig.  "That first goal was pivotal.  This is the first time we've beaten Suffern since I've been here, so that was really nice.  It was good to see the guys come out hard for the full 80 minutes."  As for strengths and weaknesses, he added, "The intensity level was not as high in the first, but our strength in the second half was good movement to get the goal."

"In the second half, we stepped up our energy and played stronger and swung the ball well," said Tran.  "We wanted it more in the end."

The Vikings improve to 4-10 for the season, while the Mounties move to 8-4-1.

South plays next at 4 p.m., on Thursday at North Rockland.