82 The QUEE NS Courier • SEPTEMBER 26, 2013 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com sports ALL ABOUT SOCCER RFK BOYS SOCCER UPSETS AUGUST MARTIN, WINS HISTORIC MATCH BY LIAM LA GUERE lguerre@queenscourier.com Playing mid-field for the Robert F. Kennedy High School boys soccer team just wasn’t working for junior Nariman Hassan. As a mid-fielder he should be defense minded and looking for opportunities to steal and advance the ball. But a natural striker, in the first half of the September 22 matchup at Francis Lewis High School in Queens Division B soccer, Hassan kept falling in front looking to score instead of pass. He was so hungry that by the start of the second half RFK head coach Ed Ryder decided to place him at the forward position. “He’s like a bug in the porch light,” Ryder said. “He just wants to go to the goal. So we’re like ‘let’s swap him with one of the guys up top.’” And Hassan felt right at home after the switch, as he scored two goals to lead the RFK Panthers to upset the undefeated August Martin High School Falcons, 3-1. Hassan’s second goal, which came with 20 minutes remaining in the game, capped the win. He snuck into the box behind defenders and waited for a pass, then, undefended, he carefully placed the ball past August Martin goalie Mark Tyndale. “When I got the pass I was like ‘oh this is my chance to shine,’” Hassan said. Before Hassan’s light shone though, the match was a classic David versus Goliath bout, and Goliath was pounding away. August Martin (4-1), which entered the game after a 5-0 drudging of Springfield Gardens High School, controlled possession in the first half with hounding defense and aggressive shot taking. It was slightly unorganized, and occasionally earned players a yellow card or warnings, but it was effective. In the 27th minute, Falcons forward Timothy Frank scored the game’s first goal after beating a defender on the right flank, and blasting a shot from about 15 yards away. RFK (2-2) goalie Michael Singh initially blocked the shot, but the force sent him to the ground and the ball trickled into the goal. The turning point for the Panthers came in the 45th minute when senior Karimullah Mashriqi tore through a few Falcons defenders on the left sideline and was geared to shoot in the box, but was tripped hard. RFK earned a major penalty kick, which senior Firoze Mehirdel easily buried in the back of the net to tie the match, 1-1. A few minutes later Hassan came up with his first goal and RFK, the underdogs, took a 2-1 led, shocking August Martin. “It took the wind out of their sails,” said Falcons coach Dominick Stanco. “They got very complacent and the team just started to give up.” Hassan’s second goal in the 60th minute completed the biggest win for the RFK program in school history, since the team was just created two years ago. “We beat Townsend Harris last year as a developmental team, that was the biggest win in the history of the program,” Ryder said. “This one is going to live on for a while.” THE COURIER/Photo by Liam La Guerre The Robert F. Kennedy High School boys soccer team upset undefeated August Martin High School. GROWING PAINS Soccer club needs room to play BY LIAM LA GUERE lguerre@queenscourier.com The legendary Middle Village-based Blau Weiss Gottschee Soccer Club is so popular it’s literally outgrown the borough. The soccer club, which remains one of the shining examples of high-level urban athletic competition, has so many players that it utilizes a scattered combination of public fields across the city and has gotten to a point where the league needs to turn young soccer hopefuls away. The team’s main field is Brennan Field in Juniper Valley Park, but they also travel to practice at Randall’s Island, located between Manhattan and Queens in the East River, and they rent space for games at Aviator Field Sports & Events Center at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, to name a few locations. “We’ve got players spread like seeds in the wind,” said Timon Kalpaxis, a youth coordinator. “Some guys have to schlep up to Randal’s Island just to train.” The club was created in 1951 by Gottscheer immigrants, an ethnic German-speaking people of from what is now south central Slovenia. A few decades ago a boom of Hispanic immigrants began entering the club. And as soccer’s popularity began to grow recently in the United States, more and more players have been coming to Gottschee. The club currently has 30 registered teams in various age and skill divisions, numerous intramural programs and free clinics. During warm months it can accumulate nearly 1,000 players combined, sometimes from the Bronx, Long Island and even New Jersey. Organizers want more Queens field space so their players can play at a centralized location. “We not looking for a huge bite of the apple, we’re just looking for a nibble,” Kalpaxis said. In searching for new fields to expand, Gottschee organizers have identified Grover Cleveland High School Athletic Field near Seneca Avenue and Deklab Avenue as a great location. The field is regulation size and has lights, so night practices and games would be possible. The Department of Education was contacted numerous times for comment, but a response was not given by press time. The soccer club has reached out for support from local leaders and politicians to help get access. “We are always open to working with them and supporting them,” said Gottschee soccer club needs more fields to support young players such as Matthew Scimemi, who is currently on the under 18 team and has been with the club since he was six. a spokesperson from Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley’s office. “We are very supportive of sports and culture programs that serve kids in the district.” Gottschee attracts much attention from many top Division I schools. From 2005 to 2012 more than 80 Gottschee players received scholarships to play soccer at well-known universities, including the University of Michigan, Duke, Photo courtesy of Miguel Brunengo Villanova, Princeton, St. John’s, Holy Cross and Rutgers, just to name a few. Coordinators said even with the Grover Cleveland field, their problem is part of a fundamental issue of lack of ball fields in the city. “We lament the fact that we got kids running around getting into trouble, but what are we giving them,” Kalpaxis asked. “Where is the infrastructure for these kids?”
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