Soccer Season Kicks Off!

What Does the Varsity Girls Soccer Team Look Like?
The VGS team is a well balanced unit with tremendous potential for a successful season. The Lady Panthers have a nice mix of young talent and savvy veteran leadership. There are many offensive weapons and the team appears able to create attacks in a variety of ways. Junior striker Alex Siwiec and sophomore winger Chelsea Caracciolo look to be the major scoring threats,however, freshmen Ashley Wade and Alex Devivo also look to be dangerous offensive options and should compliment the play of the more experienced Siwiec and Caracciolo. The midfield is orchestrated by dynamic sophomores Monique Kelly and Addie Riley. Kelly is skilled with the ball at her feet and sees the field exceptionally well, while Riley is a relentless ball winner and fine overall player. The sophomores are supported in the midfield by the senior trio of Liz Lanza, Jess Sarrantonio and Miyuki Miyagi. These three fine players have played over a hundred combined games and will not get ruffled by anything the Panthers come across. The defense also looks sound with senior backs Ashley Gilchrist and Yola Yu leading the way for talented sophomores Claudia Rogers and Natalie Flammia. Roger's booming right foot easily clears the ball from the Portledge end and often leads to quick counters from the quick playing offense. The graduation of last year's captain Emily Edwards-Bourdrez left some large boots to fill in the goal, But sophomore Chelsea Estevez, a skilled travel player, looks to be a steady keeper in the making. Sophomore Natalie Grey and and senior Steph Foley provide Head Coach Mike Coope with quality defensive depth off the bench.
Early season tests seem to support the optimism surrounding this tight knit group. The girls played well in pre season scrimmages against Horace Mann and Friends Academy and were definitely ready for the traditional home opener with Friends Seminary. The Portledge and FS girls have split their last two meetings and a spirited rivalry has developed. The Portledge side took advantage of an early misplay by the FS defense and Siwiec found herself alone in the area with the ball on her skilled right foot. She calmly slotted the "rock" past a helpless FS keeper and Portledge went on to dominate the rest of the first half. The 1-0 lead was expanded on early in the second half when speedy fresmman Alex Devivo broke down the right side and ripped a LONG RANGE shot into the" back of the ol' onion bag". Friends Seminary pulled one back in the 75th minute, but Portledge easily played ou the last five clicks without any real threat to Estevez' goal.The girls next take the field against the Lycee Francais School of NYC @ HOME on Tuesday(4:30).

What About the Varsity Boys Soccer Team?
Kevin Coleman starts his third year as Head Coach of the Varsity Boys Soccer Team with some experienced pieces in place, and a strong sense of team comraderie. Senior goalkeeper Austin Prey, who participated in the Olympic Development Program this summer, is a dominant player and looks to be in fine form during the early going. The Panthers usually line up in a traditional 4-4-2 formation and their strength is definitely up the middle. Junior center backs Aaron Lee and Mike McCloskey return as starters from last year, as do center midfielders Ray Weinmann and Mak Dourmashkin. The central strength is completed by a pair of gifted strikers in junior Trevor Wolfson and freshman Chris McCloskey. Another interesting thing about this team is that it possesses four pairs of brothers. The aforementioned McCloskeys, Alain and Eric Mathieu, Daniel and Nick Leask and Ashwin and Vishal Chinchwadkar.
The Panthers looked very solid in pre season scrimmages against OSNA and Hackley before taking on a talented Friends Seminary side that looks to be one of the strongest private school teams in the metropolitan area. Thus, the Panthers were were underdogs, but confident in this opening match. When Eric Mathieu scored late in the first half to make the score 2-1 in favor of FS the Seminarians knew they were in a real game. The second half saw some very competitive play as as the ball went back and forth and side to side across the field, before FS scored to put the game away. The excitement wasn't over yet though as Mark Dourmashkin rattled one off the woodwork just before time ran out.. The FS coach was quite complimentary regarding the play of the Panthers and Coach Coleman was vey upbeat about his team's efforts. The Panthers next play on Tuesday @ HOME (4:30) against The Lycee Francais School of NYC.