Elmira District Boys Soccer

After EFA drew a foul, Ross bent his shot from about 20 yards away around the defending wall and bounced it in from the upper corner of the net.

"It's one of the greatest shots I've ever seen," EFA coach Derek Hamilton said.

Junior Luke Ford turned away three shots for his third shutout this season. Hamilton said the school record for most shutouts in a single season is 15; eight since the STAC merger.

EFA goals-assists: Ross Holden 1-0.

Goalie saves: Luke Ford (EFA) 3; Alex Arbes (UE) 9.

Shots-corners: EFA 10-10; U-E 3-4.

Records: EFA 3-1; U-E 2-2.

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SOUTHERN TIER ATHLETIC CONF.

EFA 7, Southside 0

Elmira Free Academy freshman Alex Varkatzas scored the first four goals of his varsity career, leading the Blue Devils past rival Southside.

Denzel Harris added his second goal of the season for EFA. Academy goalkeeper Luke Ford made five saves for his second shutout of the season.

EFA goals-assists: Alex Varkatzas (4-0), Ross Holden (1-2), Dan Early (0-1), Sean Denicola (1-0), Kail Burfield (0-1), Nick Lian (0-2), Denzel Harris (1-1).

Goalie saves: Joe Bates (S) 11; Luke Ford (EFA) 5.

Shots-corners: Southside 5-0; EFA 18-4.

Records: EFA 2-1, 2-1; Southside 0-2, 0-2.

Blue Devils boys fall 3-0 to Ithaca

By Al Losey • alosey@gannett.com • Staff Writer • September 2, 2009

Elmira Free Academy's new soccer and playing surface got a good workout from the Ithaca and EFA boys soccer teams Wednesday.

The Little Red (2-0) scored all of their goals in the second-half of a 3-0 Southern Tier Athletic Conference win over the Blue Devils (1-1).

"This beautiful field suits a possession-type team like EFA, and it's always tough to play here anyway," Ithaca coach Jeff DuMont said. "But this surface suits us, too. Even though both of us spent the first half feeling each other out, I think we made good passes after halftime, especially on the first goal. Adam Sullivan is such a great team player, and he made a hard crossing pass to set up Casey Williamson.

"After the first goal we just decided to make EFA work harder to get the ball, and that loosened up their defense a little."

The first half was evenly played, with few real scoring opportunities for either team. The best chance to score came with less than 10 minutes to go before halftime, as Ithaca goalie David Kaminsky came out of the net to cut off EFA senior forward Denzel Harris on the left wing. Harris centered to a wide open goal, but the Blue Devils didn't convert.

Ithaca began to get more from its forwards to start the second half.

Williamson's goal came about nine minutes in as EFA's defense broke down across the middle, and junior goalie Luke Ford was beaten high on the left. Just 80 second later Sullivan made it 2-0 on a sinking shot from more than 20 yards out. It settled into the net high in the left corner.

On defense, Ithaca didn't give the Blue Devils much to work with as the Little Red, which totaled 14 shots, held EFA to seven.

EFA coach Derek Hamilton was happy with his young team's effort but pointed to defensive breakdowns as the difference in the game.

"I thought we did a pretty good job of limiting their offensive chances," Hamilton said. "That first goal was a quality goal. Other than the first, we just had a couple of mistakes on defense. But this is a team that starts three sophomores and a freshman, so I expect we're going to make a few mistakes. But I reminded the guys that we started 1-1 last year and went on to win the division title. We just have to improve each game."

Ithaca's final score was an own-goal by the EFA defense, but was a direct result of constant pressure from Ithaca's Andrew Troisi, who was the closest Little Red player to the free ball that was volleyed into the Devils' net.

EFA senior midfielder Charlie Anderson liked playing on the new field, saying: "It's not just a carpet, like some other fields we play on. It gives you nice, true bounces, and we all like it."

Ithaca Scoring:  Sullivan (1-0), Williamson (1-0), Kucharski (EFA - own goal)

Goalkeeper Saves:  Ithaca (Kaminsky - 7), EFA (Ford - 12, Warrick - 0)

Shots-Corners:  Ithaca (14-4), EFA (7-5)

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Elmira FA - 1

Binghamton - 0

--> Elmira Free Academy, the defending STAC Champion, defeated Binghamton in its season opening match at Binghamton Alumni Stadium.

Denzel Harris scored the long goal with 28:20 remaining in the second half.  Freshman Alex Varkatzas got the assist after the headed a corner kick to Harris in the middle.  Harris then headed the ball into the net.

Elmira out shot Binghamton 16-5.  Luke Ford had two saves in registering the shut out in his first career start.  Binghamton's Sam Guy stopped 10 shots.

EFA Gaols-Assists:  Harris (1-0), Varkatzas (0-1)

Goalkeeper Saves:  Ford (EFA) - 2, Guy (Bing) - 10

Shots-Corners:  EFA 16-7, Bing 5-3

Star-Gazette 

By Andrew Legare • alegare@gannett.com • Staff Writer • August 27, 2009

-->Back-to-back division championships have given the Elmira Free Academy boys soccer team undisputed status as the top dog in the Southern Tier Athletic Conference West division.

But this is high school soccer, where players come and go every year, and where success can be fleeting if you're unable to regroup. If Academy can successfully put it all together again this fall, the Blue Devils have the opportunity to do something special by claiming three straight division titles.

"I think we've restarted a good tradition at Academy in the last three years and I hope they keep that going in future seasons," said EFA head coach Derek Hamilton, whose team beat Susquehanna Valley last year for the STAC tournament championship.

Much of Academy's success in the division race has to do with its success against division opponents. Hamilton teams have gone 13-3-2 against STAC West foes over the last three years, with games against STAC Metro teams also factoring into the division standings.

The other three teams in the West -- Corning, Horseheads and Southside -- are certainly familiar with Academy's newfound division dominance and are intent on finding a way to stop it.

"Until someone unseats them, they're the team everyone is going to look to bring their 'A' game against," said Curt Grottenthaler, who's in his 12th season as head coach at Horseheads.

Said Corning coach Chad Freelove of EFA: "Until they're knocked off, they've got the bragging rights."

Horseheads and Corning each lost only two starters, so those teams are primed to make things interesting in the division this season.

STAC West Team Capsules

CORNING DISTRICT

Coach:  Chad Freelove

Last Year's Record:  6-11-1

Season Opener:  Wednesday vs. Horseheads

Season Outlook:  The Hawks have nive of 11 starters back, including three players named to the STAC West All-Division team:  junior center midfielder Sam Schirmer, and senior forwards Jesse Martinez and Nicholas Jacobson.

Other returning starters are senior centerback Caleb Noel, senior right back Andrew Ortiz, senior right midfielder Anthony Pavlick, junior center midfielder Zach Dann, and senior left midfielder Tyler Lucero.  Among the big additions from the JV team are a pair of record-breakers.  Junior goalie Jonathan Howitt set school records for career shutouts (15) and shutouts in a season (10 last year) despite missing eight games as a freshman with a broken hand.  Julian LaDelia, a junior forward, set Corning JV records for career goals (28) and goals in a season (25 in 15 games last year).

Said Freelove: "The committment level this off-season has been unparalleled to any committment level we've had.  The kids are working harder than any group i've had--therfore, they're more prepared than any group i've had.  Now they just have to execute. 

ELMIRA FREE ACADEMY

Coach:  Derek Hamilton

Last Year's Record:  10-7-2

Season Opener:  Monday, at Binghamton

Season Outlook:  Academy's season ended with a loss to Owego on penalty kicks in the Section 4, Class A semifinals.  There's a pretty good chunk of last year's team back to try to go farther this year.

Returning players include senior midfielder Ross Holden, senior forward Denzel Harris, senior midfielder Charlie Anderson, junior midfielder Nick Lian, junior defender Kevin Kucharski, junior midfielder Kail Burfield, senior defender Cory Swatling, senior midfielder Ben Linchuck, and junior defender Jake Davenport, who returns after suffering a torn meniscus in his knee in the second game of the 2008 season.

Said Hamilton: "We're young again. We were a young team last year.  We're always going to be young because we're the smallest school on our schedule.  Every year, we have four or five ninth or 10th graders...We're well organized, we play a good brand of soccer.  We usually end up playing our best soccer towards the end of the year when everything really counts.

HORSEHEADS

Coach:  Curt Grottenthaler

Last Year's Record:  5-11-3

Season Opener:  Saturday, vs. Vestal

Season Outlook:  Horseheads is coming off its worst season in the 12-year tenure of Grottenthaler.  The good news is that most of the players from that team will have the chance to redeem themselves, with 17 players back and only two starters gone.

Said Grottenthaler: "We ended up the second half of the seaosn last year with exactly a .500 record.  We're looking to build off the confidence of those guys...The short term goal is to play to our potential every day and to learn from our mistakes.  Any then obviously we want to compete for a STAC West division title.  Our big thing this year is we want the kids to be coaching themselves on the field.

SOUTHSIDE

Coach:  Edgar Zarate

Last Year's Record:  1-15

Season Opener:  Wednesday at Union-Endicott

Season Outlook:  New head coach Zarate, a native of Peru who teaches Spanish at Southside, has nine returning players to help him try to improve on last year's one-win season.

Among those back are senior captains Joe Bates (midfielder), Tyler Galpin (midfielder), and Ryan Murphy (stopper).  Also back are senior midfielder Justin Mason, senior defender Chris Jones, junior midfielder Johnny LaDouce, senior attack Tyler Comstock, senior midfielder Louie Parmalee, and junior midfielder Mike Prunier.

Said Zarate: "My goal for this year is for them to have confidence in themselves.  We have been working intensely with one-touch passes.  I hope this will give us the result to at least hvae more wins.  My goal is that most of the home games we should be able to win."  Zarate, 43, said he's also hoping for more fan support.