100 THE QUEENS COURIER • OCTOBER 23, 2014 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com sports UNITED AS ONE TWO RIVALS UNITE AS ONE IN HONOR OF BREAST CANCER AWARENESS BY HEATHER ZWILLENBERG The John Adams Spartans suffered a defeat in a close overtime match at the hands of the Newtown Pioneers. But it was not the score of the soccer game that would determine the success of their day. The Spartans and the Pioneers, who battled in a 3-2 victory in favor of the Pioneers, came together as one after the game to show their support for breast cancer awareness. The players and coaches each wore pink armbands throughout the game. The head coaches of the two teams, Alex Navarette and Eric Wozniak, decided that it was the right day for breast cancer awareness. “One of my players Louggi Denegri’s mother has breast cancer. We dedicated the game to her,” added the head coach of the Pioneers, Eric Wozniak. “We picked the right day to honor all the survivors and the people who suffered from cancer we wanted to dedicate the game to them,” said Navarette. With the dedication of the game for breast cancer awareness, the match had the vibe of not just the last game of the season but also a playoff game. The Spartans started off really strong and, despite the Pioneers being the better team on paper, held a 2-0 lead at the half. Junior Delwar Hussain and sophomore Santiago Amaya each scored a goal. “The wind factor plays against you or you use it to benefi t you, but you can only do it for one half. So the fi rst half, when we had the wind, we tried to put pressure on them and we could have had a third goal but it hit the post the last minute,” said Navarette. In the second half with the wind no longer on their side, the Spartans gave up the lead within the fi rst 10-15 minutes. The Pioneers were able to get two kicks on goal which stemmed from corner kicks. Following, the Pioneers and Spartans traded jabs throughout the fi nal minutes. In regulation, the game ended in a tie which forced overtime. The Pioneers, with the wind on their side, were able to score and win the game. Junior Diego Borja, and seniors Lobsang Tenzin and Raul Bol Garcia scored goals for the Pioneers. “In the second half they were determined to put pressure in the fi rst 10, 15 minutes and they got what they wanted,” said Navarette. “Their goal was to try and tie the game as quickly as possible and I knew that if that happened we would be struggling for the whole second half. So they tied the game. We kind of evened it out and it was more like a back-andforth game where we pushed it to overtime. It was unfortunate that we lost the coin toss. They took the same half so now they still had for another fi ve minutes with the advantage of the wind and that’s what killed us.” To end the regular season, the Spartans played two games against teams with a combined record of 17-2- 5 in which they more than held their own: their game against the Newcomers Lions ended in a 1-1 tie, and this game against the Pioneers was close. “I think we just wanted to prove we can keep up with Newtown and Newcomers and all the top teams that are going to be making the playoffs,” said Navarette. “Unfortunately for us, it’s just going to be an experience that we need to take for next year’s team. We didn’t have a good start. If we had a good start, we would have been making the playoffs. So I think the teams that made the playoffs deserve to be there and I want to wish them all the best of luck,” Navarette continued. The Spartans will be losing fi ve of their seniors, but with the midseason improvements that the Spartans made, there is hope that next season will include the playoffs. In their last seven games of the season, the Spartans went 3-2-2. “We improved,” said Navarette. “I tell you that we improved in the middle of the season. You know, having a rough start losing the fi rst three games with no goals and then slowly climbing to try and even out our record. And the ties that we had, they could have been wins. The loss that we had against Bryant could have been a win. On paper it refl ects that we ended up 3-6- 3, but you know I analyze the whole season, I think this team is capable to be in the playoffs next year.”
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