Harborfields boys soccer wins on Caiden Veitch's goal
Caiden Veitch of Harborfields puts a shot on goal against West Islip on Wednesday. Credit: David Meisenholder
As Harborfields boys soccer team’s starting lineup huddled on its half before its home game against West Islip Wednesday afternoon, you could hear the message relayed from teammate to teammate.
“Let’s do it for last year’s seniors.”
That’s because West Islip had eliminated Harborfields on the same field in the first round of the playoffs a year ago, something that remained front-of-mind for senior goalie Anthony Salerno and his fellow Tornadoes.
“We’ve had that game on replay ever since then,” Salerno said. “We were all very fired up from that.”
Salerno left the field just as fired up, having helped Harborfields avenge its 2024 loss as it defeated West Islip, 2-1, in Suffolk II. The winning goal came courtesy of the hairs on senior Caiden Veitch’s head following a great service from fellow senior Charlie Bair with 11:15 remaining in the game.
“It feels really good now,” Veitch said. “I wouldn’t have expected me to score six goals this season, but it’s more about the team than me.”
West Islip (4-3-3) struck first, just 1:10 into the game after senior Peyton Bianca scored directly off the game’s first corner kick.
Despite trailing 1-0 at halftime, Veitch said the team felt confident at halftime, having put four shots on goal.
“We thought we were going to win,” Veitch said. “We felt like we dominated the first half.”
Senior Joshua Krief rewarded that confidence, forcing a turnover with a solid tackle as the right winger took the ball to goal and scored for Harborfields (6-4) with 21:52 remaining.
“The whole game I was trying to get that one,” Krief said. “I was ecstatic, there’s no feeling like it. I can’t even describe it, getting that equalizer against the team that put us away last year in the playoffs. It was just ethereal.”
West Islip’s best chance at an equalizer came in the final minutes. Sophomore Preston Nutter delivered a beautiful chip off a free kick to the head of sophomore Nilson Nunez, who directed the ball toward the bottom left corner only for Salerno to be in position to make his fifth and final save.
“In that play, I just had to save the ball,” Salerno said. “Honestly the last five minutes of the game are the scariest, especially when you’re up by one. I just had to get to it.”
Salerno has a tattoo of Italy along his left arm — fitting, seeing that his family is from the city of Salerno — but his Harborfields family will certainly enjoy the message he’ll deliver Wednesday night.
“The second I go home I’m going to tell all the seniors from last year that we did it for them,” Salerno said. “We beat them.”
Michael Sicoli covers high school sports for Newsday. He graduated from Quinnipiac in 2022 and left with a master’s degree in sports journalism in 2023.
