By Ted Waddell
LIVINGSTON MANOR — October 5, 2001 – The Livingston Manor Wildcats (0–6) continued their winless streak on Monday, losing a non-league boys’ soccer game against the Comets of Fallsburg (7–1) as the visitors walked off the playing field with a 4-2 victory.
Manor is in the process of building a boys’ varsity program. The 2001 soccer season marks coach Peter Feinberg’s third year at the helm of the fledgling soccer team.
The Comets were bench heavy, as they came to Manor with 23 booters, while the home team was rather light in the bench department, as they have a team comprised of 15 players.
The Fallsburg boys varsity squad has 12 seniors and 11 juniors. The Wildcats are a mixed bag of kitties: five seniors, three juniors, 10 sophomores and four freshmen.
The hosts created a stir in the Manor bleachers when they drew first blood in the opening frame at 24:00 as Evan Bowers scored on an assist by Jason Kean.
At 20:00, Fallsburg evened it up as Bakary Ceesay put one into the net on an assist by Christian Huezo. Brooks Whitaker scored at 15:00 on an assist by Brendon Pantel to give the Comets a 2-1 lead.
With five minutes remaining in the first half, Roy Rogers crossed to Robert Rosen who scored for Manor to make it a 2-2 match.
Whitaker scored on an assist by Huezo at 1:45 to give the Comets a 3-2 lead at the half.
The hotly-contested second half remained scoreless until Stuart Juarez put one into the cage at 18:00 on an assist by David Klussman to close out the game’s scoring at 4-2 in favor of Fallsburg.
“We haven’t won a game yet, but we’ve been competitive the entire year,” said Feinberg.
Last year, the Wildcats racked up a total of six points for the season. So far this year, they have scored a total of nine goals against stronger teams.
In assessing Monday’s game against Fallsburg, Feinberg said his team has been working on ‘give and goes’ all season and it paid off with two goals on assists.
“I believe the kids played eighty minutes of soccer this afternoon, and that’s all I’ve ever asked them to do,” said Feinberg. “We played eighty minutes, which made us very competitive… there were no lag periods, and we did a good job.
“The kids seem to be enjoying the game, which is why they’re here,” he added. “They get frustrated at times, but so do I… it’s part of the life-cycle.”
Feinberg’s number one goal for the 2001 soccer season?
“To win one game,” he said. “We’re tired of being defeated.”
Fallsburg’s only loss so far this year was at the hands of the Family School Falcons last Monday.
Comets veteran coach Paul Marsden said of their game against the young team from Manor, “I thought they (Manor) really came to play. They worked hard and didn’t back away from us.
“We came out a little flat and tried to overpass a bit, but we did okay,” he added. “It was a good team effort, and the midfielders did a good job controlling the mid-field, making good distributions and good decisions.”
Marsden’s take on the season?
“I think we’re going to be okay,” he said. “We’re hoping to win the division and do the best we can in the sectionals.”