Settlers soccer team gets ‘wake up call’ in opening match loss
Ever since he was named Settlers boys soccer coach this summer, Chris Ruggi looked forward to his varsity debut.
“Very excited,” he said. “Been thinking about it for a while now, pre-season, building up to it, anticipating it. It certainly was a lot of fun to lead these guys.”
The outcome wasn’t what Ruggi had hoped for, as the Settlers dropped their season-opener at Port Jefferson, 1-0, in a Suffolk County League IV encounter at the Scraggy Hill Road Fields on Sept. 4.
“It’s disappointing,” the coach said. “A league game right from the start. We knew the importance of it to get off on the right foot and to get an advantage in the league … It’s a long season, and it’s the first step. It’s not the direction we want it to go, but we’re going to work at it and go to work tomorrow.”
Ruggi replaced Andrew Sadowski, the dean of Suffolk boys’ coaches who had directed the Settlers since 1994. Sadowski retired as both teacher and coach and moved down to North Carolina.
The players not only wanted to win it for Ruggi, but for themselves as well.
“I don’t think it was for just the coach. I just want to win,” co-captain and senior goalkeeper Travis Sepenoski said. “I came here to win. I didn’t come here to lose, but that’s part of the game. We’re going have to better ourselves after today and fix what we did wrong.”
Co-captain and junior midfielder-forward Brandon Moran agreed. “I certainly wanted to give him a win, but not just for him, honestly, just for the whole team,” he said. “It affects our league placement.”
Ruggi stood on the sideline for the entire 80 minutes, watching the action intently while shouting instructions and praise.
“Slow them down!”
“Turn and face! Turn and face! First and second balls!”
“Well done, Travis!”
And sometimes, he tried to give a little direction to the two referees. “Handball! Handball!” he shouted minutes into the game after the ball hit the arm of a Royals player. Unfortunately for Southold, it did not help.
The Settlers were late arriving to the game, which was scheduled for a 4:45 p.m. kickoff. Due to bus availability, the team did not leave the school until 3:45 for a 38-mile drive west. The team arrived at 4:55 and needed time to warm up. The game kicked off at 5:22.
“I wouldn’t use that as an excuse,” Ruggi said. “We addressed it coming in that that was going to be the situation. It’s up to us to adapt and to rise above it. I feel like we did that in the second half. We certainly recovered. Came out and started winning some individual battles and turned the tide a bit there.”
Port Jefferson came out aggressively and dominated a good portion of the first half.
“I’m never surprised by Port Jeff,” Sepenoski said. “They always have something interesting. They always perform well at their own home field, so, give credit to them. They played a good game today.”
The visitors managed to get to the break with a scoreless tie, but that didn’t last as the Royals scored almost seven minutes into the second half. Senior midfielder Kevin Johnson slotted home a left-wing cross from junior midfielder Marco Baranta into the lower left corner past a diving Sepenoski at 46:58.
“I got my hand to it,” Sepenoski said. “It was just well placed.”
Southold had its chances to score. Only 90 seconds into the second half, Moran drilled a point-blank shot that goalkeeper Samuel Matvya knocked away. Matvya also denied junior midfielder Sabri Ilgin from close range with 14:22 remaining in the match.
“I learned that we could take a punch and fight back a little bit, and we can recover from a slow start,” Ruggi said.
Ruggi said he was impressed with Sepenoski, who finished with nine saves. His best stop came at 30:19, making a flying save on Max Gordon while leaping to his right.
“Travis was very good in goal, commanding the line coming out and winning balls and not letting them get behind the defense,” Ruggi said. “He sparks our offense a little bit with those punts.”
Sepenoski hoped that the team’s newcomers learned what varsity soccer was about.
“It’s a good wake-up call for a lot of guys, guys coming up from JV last year to the varsity level,” he said. “It’s a different game. They’ve got to adjust to it. Got to do it quick. Big games, rest of the month coming up. We’ve got to put in the past and focus and refocus.”
