Chris Cordone scored on a penalty kick 2:00 into sudden-death overtime in Longwood‘s 3-2 win over Centereach in the first round of the Brookhaven Tournament. Longwood‘s Joe Pew scored with 43 seconds left in regulation to force overtime. BROOKHAVEN TOURNAMENT First Round Longwood 1 1 0 0 1 – 3 Centereach 2 0 0 0 0 – 2 Goals – L: Pantelidis, Pew, Cordone; C: Giambalvo, Freidman. Saves – L: Engmann 15; C: Urbom 6. Sept. 16

Shawn O’Rourke scored on an indirect kick with 6:58 remaining to lift Floyd over Longwood, 3-2. Floyd’s Paul Edwards tied the score at 2 with a 25-yard kick at 23:39 of the second half. Longwood 1 1 2 Floyd 1 2 3 Goals – L: Pantelidis, Pew; F: Arasa, Edwards, O’Rourke. Saves – L: Engmann 10; F: Frank 6, Beehler 4. Sept. 19

Tom McAlonen headed in a cross from Joe Lenard at 30:00 of the second half to lift Sachem over Longwood, 2-1. Sachem 1 1 2 Longwood 0 1 1 Goals – S: Fontana, McAlonen; L: Pantelidis. Saves – S: Fine 5; L: Engmann 15. Sept. 21

Longwood 2 0 2 Sayville 1 1 2 Goals – L: Holmes, Velez; S: Gillespie, Eden. Saves – L: Engmann 7; S: Coppola 7. Sept. 22

Gavin Throckmorton scored on a penalty kick with 6:59 left in the first half to give Patchogue-Medford a 1-1 tie with Longwood .  Longwood 1 0 0 0 1 Patchogue-Medford 1 0 0 0 1 Goals – L: Holmes; P-M: Throckmorton. Saves – L: Engmann 10; P-M: Schatz 8. Sept. 27

 Brentwood 0 1 1 Longwood 0 0 0 Goals – B: Herrera. Saves – B: Torres 5; L: Engmann 10. Sept. 29

Pat Coyle scored two first-half goals in Ward Melville’s 5-1 win over Longwood. Longwood 0 1 1 Ward Melville 3 2 5 Goals – L: Pantelidas; W: Gerry 2, Coyle 2, Bowman. Saves – L: Engmann 14; W: Moore 10. Oct. 5

Anthony Galatro scored off a direct kick by Tom Holmes early in the first half as Longwood beat Connetquot, 1-0. Connetquot 0 0 0 Longwood 1 0 1 Goals – L: Galatro. Saves – C: Eggert 8; L: Engmann 10. Oct. 7

Floyd 1 3 4 Longwood 1 0 1 Goals – F: DiLorenzo, Edwards, Brown, Agelis; L: Holmes. Saves – F: Beehler 8; L: Engmann 8. Oct. 13

Joe Lenard scored on a penalty kick with 3:23 left in the first overtime to lift Sachem over Longwood, 2-1. Longwood 0 1 0 0 1 Sachem 1 0 1 0 2 Goals – L: Pantelidis; S: Kirmse, Lenard. Saves – L: Engmann 12; S: Cuttin 7, Fine 2. Oct. 15

Patchogue-Medford 2 2 4 Longwood 0 0 0 Goals – PM: Gruttaduria, Neumeyer, Iannucci, Parodi. Saves – PM: Werner 5; L: Caruana 3, Engmann 5. Oct. 19

INSIDE HIGH Soccer’s Chilling Fields Conditions at schools make it tough on players, coaches: [NASSAU AND SUFFOLK Edition]

Herrmann, Mark. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 22 Oct 1989:

A soccer field is entitled to a few character traits, given its influential and often overlooked role. After all, the ball spends nearly as much time on the field as the players do. Football, baseball and basketball use the air as a venue for moving the ball. Soccer uses the field.

So, we should be a little more understanding when we encounter a field that appears inflexible, moody, balding or – in one case – a trifle shady.

A majestic 100-foot-tall maple casts its shadow over Sayville’s field. Unfortunately, a few of its branches also hover above midfield.

“When I first came here three years ago, the field was very small. So I asked them to cut back the trees on one end and on the side,” coach Bob Wernersbach said. “The branches just came to the edge of the field. Wouldn’t you know, the tree started to grow again?”

Although it may be argued that anybody who kicks the ball 20 feet in the air at midfield deserves to have a tree intervene, there is no firmly rooted rule on maple obstruction. “Most of the time, an official believes that if it hits the tree, it’s out [of bounds!. But one of the referees said that as long as it doesn’t interfere with play, it’s in,” Wernersbach said.

“When our JV played there, one of our players said he tried a throw-in, it hit the tree, came back and almost hit him,” Rocky Point coach Al Ellis recalled.

Sayville nonetheless is right in refusing to yield space. Soccer has grown so much that it needs all the room it can get.

Many fields are not wide enough to accommodate the ever-expanding skills of the players. “Too many teams are playing on football fields, which are about 60 by 120 yards,” Wernersbach said. “That just takes away what I consider one of the most exciting parts of the game – all the wing play. You should be able to work the ball to the flanks and get a tactical advantage.” He believes a field ought to have at least 70 yards of playing room between sidelines.

“I’d rather put up with a tree than a narrow field,” he said.

Soccer official Joe Fasano said he saw a very good high school team become “amazing” when he worked one of its games on Adelphi’s spacious field.

The question of width has cost Hicksville several broken windows over the past three years. The soccer team plays on a grassy spot close to the school building.

“People say, `Why don’t you play on the football field?’ Well, we wouldn’t have as much grass. And the field would be narrower. We play in the top league. These kids are used to the best accommodations,” athletic director Bob Kenney said. “This is the best we can offer.” Out of consideration for the history teacher whose classroom became the resting place of errant shots on goal, the end line was moved a few yards farther away from the building before this season.

Elbow room always has been a problem. “At Calhoun, they used to play across a baseball field, and you had to take a corner kick off a little piece of cement, against a chain-link fence,” Fasano said. At the old Center Moriches field, a misdirected kick would send the ball soaring onto railroad tracks – making ballboys grateful that the Long Island Rail Road has little late-afternoon service on that line.

Some coaches believe the field itself can be an unnatural obstacle when it is made of Astroturf. They assert that a linear sport takes on too much of a vertical dimension. “The ball rolls beautifully on it,” said North Babylon coach John Eden. “But it bounces too high. And if someone does happen to go down, it is too hard to land on. If I had my choice, I’d rather play on grass.”

Wernersbach was more demonstrative, quoting former Dutch star Johann Cruyff: “Playing soccer on Astroturf is like playing basketball on grass.”

Nature, too, presents its impediments. Malverne learned that lesson when it built a field on the site of a 15-acre pond that supposedly had dried years earlier. Like traditions, old ponds evidently die hard. After rainstorms last fall, the Mules’ home field was filled with so much water that two players traversed it in a canoe.

“We only use that field as a last resort,” said Malverne superintendent James Tolle, adding that the school district is trying to get Nassau County – the pond’s previous owner – to establish a new drainage system.

Woods were the source of some trepidation for a former Newsday reporter, who recalls covering games at Longwood‘s old field in the late 1960s. “There were hunters in there,” said the reporter, who admitted his fear of being mistaken for game while he was covering one. “I always wore bright orange or yellow.”

LaSalle coach Mike Timo keeps records on peculiarities of every site his team visits. Eastport, for instance, is a sun field. It is not so easy for opponents to prepare for a game at LaSalle. The Oakdale-based military academy abuts Great South Bay, and late-afternoon winds off the water give the field the foreboding air of a Scottish golf links.

“Over the years, we’ve learned to bite the bullet in the first half and go into the wind. That makes it much easier in the second half,” Timo said.

“The field itself is really nice. The pitch and the turf are very good,” Mattituck coach Mike Huey said. “But you always have that wind, and . . .” And reminders that LaSalle often shares its field with Canada geese. “You just have to ignore it,” Huey said.

No one knows better than Timo, however, that soccer and water are not always a good mix. He was coaching at Dowling College when its team’s field was right on a bank of the Connetquot River. It often became incumbent on someone to take a dip in order to retrieve a ball. Team members alternated in that chilling duty.

“Once, we almost lost a goalkeeper,” Timo said. “He was too embarrassed to tell anyone he couldn’t swim that well. Thank goodness he had the ball. That kept him afloat.” A son shines

Chaminade soccer coach Alex Struzzieri had been looking for an assistant who would be comfortable with his philosophy, commitment and experience. He found the right candidate at his own dinner table.

His son Rick, 23, agreed to take the job.

“I’ve coached Rick since he was five or six years old – on the Long Island select team and in the Massapequa Soccer Club,” the elder Struzzieri said. “The system I used when he was there is the same one I use now.”

Rick, an auditor for an insurance company, said his hours are flexible enough to let him take the part-time job. Although his own college career was cut short by an injury when he was playing for Ithaca, he still can play well enough to demonstrate maneuvers and strategies his father is teaching.

“We both have equal say,” Rick said. “He’ll listen when I say I want to do something.”

Sometimes, it takes more than one pair of eyes to keep track of everyone coming in and out of a Chaminade game. “We’re not like St. John the Baptist. We don’t have eight state [caliber! players,” Alex said. “We used 20 players against them.”

Chaminade is the only Nassau-Suffolk Catholic League team that has beaten St. John’s. If coaching in soccer – like basketball – can be judged on a team’s performance down the stretch, the Struzzieris have been doubly effective. Chaminade beat both St. John’s and St. Anthony’s in the final five seconds.

Ward Melville 1 1 2 Longwood 0 1 1 Goals – WM: Boscarino, Coyle; L: Fechter. Saves – WM: Moore 4, Schmidt 3; L: Engmann 6. Oct. 25

Longwood 0 1 0 0 1 Connetquot 1 0 1 0 2 Goals – L: Gramman; C: Keck, Latino. Saves – L: Engmann 10; C: Eggert 7. Oct. 27