Valhalla Hangs On to Defeat the Panthers in Playoff Opener

By Monica D’Ippolito
The first round of Class B sectionals pitted ninth-seeded Pleasantville against eighth-seeded Valhalla on Friday evening. An even matchup, it was the Vikings who exploited more scoring chances and ultimately came out with the 2-1 victory.
“I told them I was very proud,” Panthers coach Savvas Kyriakidis said afterwards. “We knew it was going to be a close game and I thought we took it to them, we dominated at points, (but) we gave up too many opportunities that they capitalized on.”
The start of the match was mostly played in the middle of the field, as neither team had any dangerous shots on goal. It wasn’t until the 20th minute when the Vikings were given their first scoring opportunity that the game opened up a bit.
Kaio Dasilva took the ball down the right sideline and had a one-on-one with Pleasantville keeper Mike Nuccio, who aggressively came out and made the initial save. But the ball took an awkward bounce and deflected off a Panther defenseman’s arm.
The referee provided the Vikings with a penalty kick, which Dasilva finished with ease, giving Valhalla the 1-0 lead.
“The penalty kick might have been questionable from where I was standing,” Kyriakidis said. “But I don’t think that killed us, we still stayed in the game and made it interesting and we still had opportunities to win it down the stretch. Just didn’t finish.”
The goal seemed to ignite the Vikings’ offense, which suddenly had more chances around the net than in the first 20 minutes. The midfield kept playing through balls to strikers who were able to slip behind the defense.
“We just wanted to match up with their intensity the first 10 minutes and we knew if we can do that, eventually they would tire out on this big field,” Valhalla coach Sandro Prosperino said. “Once we settled in, I think the rest of the game was us.”
Seconds before the end of the half, the Vikings’ Yuto Tobin played a ball through on the left flank to Steve Kopicki, who took a shot on Nuccio. The senior goalkeeper again got a hand on the initial shot, but Ricky Thomas was in excellent position, cleaned up the deflection in front and scored the eventual game-deciding goal.
“I saw Yuto make the pass to Steve and it was going out of bounds, so I was going near-post to see if he could play a low, hard cross,” Thomas recalled. “It hit the goalie, deflected, and I was just right there to tap it in.”
In the second half, the Panthers played more aggressively and pressured Valhalla’s defense. Within the first 10 minutes, they too got on the board. Chris Maloney dribbled down the left side, taking the ball to the end line, then centered a cross to in the middle of the box to an open Jon Kyriakidis, who hit it home, cutting the Valhalla lead to 2-1.
“I told them they didn’t do everything they wanted to do, if we just played our game and stick to our game plan that we can take over the game,” Savvas Kyriakidis said of his halftime speech. “We scored within the first 15 minutes that just totally stole the momentum and then continued it.”
Valhalla had scoring chances in the second half, but stellar play in net by Nuccio kept the game within reach for the Panthers. The Vikings outshot Pleasantville 11-5, but Nuccio tallied 11 saves in the match.
“He was outstanding tonight,” Prosperino said of Nuccio. “Everyone on the field for Pleasantville was outstanding, but their goalie definitely stepped up today.”
Along with Nuccio, Savvas Kyriakidis also credited his sweeper, Jeff Wang, for having a “heck of a game” and sophomore Jon Kyriakidis, who he thought “was very energetic.”
In the end, the Panthers were unable to get the equalizer. But despite the loss, their coach was proud of the way his team performed.
“It was a total team effort, we needed everybody to play well and for the most part they did,” Kyriakids said. “For a lot of these guys, it’s their first sectional, whereas (the Vikings) have a bunch of sectional experience… So the fact that we’re here and it was that close, it was a credit to these guys.”
“I really think our strength is our defense,” Thomas said about the Vikings, who went on to stun top-seeded Irvington 2-0 in the next round a couple of days later. “We’ve got Kaio Dasilva, an All-State player, so we feel comfortable with him. We have a good goalie in Michael Perna and we just have an all-around balanced team.”

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