Garden City boys soccer wins back-to-back state Class AA state crowns
Garden City players celebrate their win in the NYSPHSAA Class A boys soccer final on Saturday in Middletown, N.Y. Credit: Adrian Kraus
MIDDLETOWN — The players raced toward goalkeeper Michael Karcher to celebrate when the final second drained off the scoreboard clock, joy written across every face.
It took until last year for the Garden City boys soccer program to win its first state championship. And now the Trojans were back-to-back state champs, needing to come from behind to pull this off in the title match Saturday at Middletown High.
Senior center back Thomas Fargione scored the tying goal with 21:59 left and senior left wing Jack Klein delivered the winner with 9:09 to go in Garden City’s 2-1 victory over Section IX champ Cornwall Central.
A repeat feat in AA.
“I mean, it’s special,” Fargione said. “Especially for us seniors right now, I think we’re the best class in [Garden City] history. To go back to back, it’s crazy, especially in high school soccer. It means the world to 19 of us seniors.”
Doing it the hard way was certainly a satisfying way to finish this 20-2 story.
“Especially just based on today, I would say if it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth it,” assistant coach Sean Brady said. “It’s easy for other teams to watch us during the season and say, ‘That’s what they do.’ But it’s not that simple. We worked really hard. We battled adversity all year.
“This group did a great job of being resilient, bouncing back. Today was a perfect example, going down a goal at halftime and they bounce back from that. They have some switch they flip and they just turned it on.”
Dylan Fisher fed Klein, and there was Klein dribbling in hard from that side on goalie Brett Zimmer, then putting a shot from a little more than 5 yards out between the keeper’s legs and into the net for the lead.
Winning goal in the state championship game? That’s a forever accomplishment.
“It’s surreal,” Klein said. “It’s honestly the best feeling ever. I’m so happy to go back to back and help my teammates get the win. It’s awesome.”
Adversity had struck for the Trojans just 4:04 into the match.
There was a trip in the box, setting up a penalty kick for the Dragons.
Jack Armstrong came in to replace Karcher for the PK and dove in the right direction. But Adam Schulman booted the perfect shot into the far left corner of the net — 1-0.
And that’s the way it stood at halftime. And that’s the way it continued to stand five minutes into the second half, 10 minutes into the second half, 15 minutes into the second half …
“We had the right flow of the game,” assistant coach Luke Connolly said. “We knew it was coming. So once that first one went in, it gave us all confidence to continue our game plan and continue going for that second one.”
Fargione got that first one by delivering the equalizing header in front off a free kick from the right side by Jack Costa.
“We needed two (goals),” Cornwall Central coach Matthew Quick said after his team finished a 17-2-1 run that included a stunning late comeback to beat Churchville-Chili in the semis. “They’re such a good team. I knew one wouldn’t hold up.
“When they got the first one, I thought maybe we could fight for the second one. Sometimes you can bend and not break. And we bent and unfortunately we broke.”
Before Klein broke the tie, Karcher kept it at 1-1.
With about 17 1/2 minutes left, the senior dove to stop a shot by Saba Khelashvili, one of Karcher’s six saves.
“All my life, I prepared for this moment,” Karcher said. “It just felt great to make the save. I think I was prepared. I wasn’t scared at all. I was ready. I was hungry to make a save and win the game for us.”
And then they won their final game of the season — again.
