Glenn boys soccer's magical season ends short of state semifinal bid

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS — The inevitable outcome was finally official, and the sadness over Rye 5, Glenn 0 was etched across the faces of Cooper Kassan and his teammates.

His sensational senior soccer season and the Knights’ terrific season had just ended on the turf Saturday at Yorktown High in the Class A Southeast Regional final — one step from the final four in Middletown.

“Today wasn’t our day,” said Kassan, the forward who tied the team’s single-season record with 31 goals. “And it hurts so much for us because I know we worked so hard all season to get here. In the end, we couldn’t do what we wanted. But we still had a great season.”

The Knights (18-3) repeated as Suffolk champs and won the program’s first Long Island championship in 35 years. And they showed their resilience by coming from one goal behind to win in their four playoff games before this one.

“I’m super humbled and proud of this group,” coach Lou Hanner said. “We overachieved. Just unfortunate we were one game away from Middletown.”

Instead, junior center attacking midfielder Kasen Scarperi pushed Rye there for the first time since 2019 by attacking for three goals and one assist.

So the Garnets (18-1-3), the repeat Section I champs who feature players from 14 countries, will play Saturday in those state semis.

“I think we’re just really happy,” Scarperi said. “This doesn’t really happen too often for Rye. I feel like since we lost last year in the regional semifinals, we just had one goal and that’s to get to the state finals and win it. So we’re all ready. We’re all hungry.”

It showed at Glenn’s expense.

Scarperi had the Knights headed uphill just 7:16 into the match, sending a liner from near the top left edge of the box into the right side of the net, sailing it over goalkeeper David Palencia. Then there was Scarperi again, breaking in this time and letting go from near the same spot, scoring with 9:13 to go until the break.

And then came the crushing third goal. Scarperi fed Felix Wismer in the right side of the box, and Wismer deposited the ball into the net with two seconds left in the half.

“Once the third one went in the back of the net — game over,” Hanner said.

Kassan had a chance to put Glenn on the board with nearly eight minutes gone in the second half, but Will Alexander drove to his left for one of his nine saves.

The exclamation points followed for Rye. Scarperi broke into the left side of the box and made it 4-0 with 27:22 remaining, and Lex Cox scored 34 seconds later to set the final margin.

“We didn’t show up to play today,” Hanner said. “They’re a very good team, but I think we’re a little banged up, and I think the last week we were drained, exhausted, emotionally, physically, spiritually. We didn’t really get off the bus.”