Boys Soccer: Ossining Gets Off to Fast Start

Ossining coach Joe Scamarone knew that he had a lot of youngsters who didn’t have varsity experience going into this season.

However, he also knew that they had talent and that, combined with some key cornerstone players, gave Scamarone confidence that his squad could keep its winning tradition going.

So far, so good as the Pride is off to a 3-1-2 start on the pitch.

“Our new players are meshing nicely with our veterans and we are playing well as team,” Scamarone said. “The players are committed to the team and are working hard. That is why we have been successful so far.”

Sophomore attacking midfielder Alex Tejera has done it all for the Pride, as he has shown to be a prolific scorer.

“The fact that he is just a sophomore is excellent,” Scamarone said. “My only fear is what is going around, not only with soccer academies around here but around the country, is that they want to take players and not allow them to play in high school in the near future. That’s one of my fears because I would like to have him play here the next couple of years. He’s been dominating so far in most of the games that we have played and he’s only a sophomore with great qualities and a great level of skill.”

On his end, Tejera said that his only concern for this fall is helping make the Pride the best team that it can be.

“I haven’t thought about that yet, I am just focusing on high-school soccer right now,” Tejera said.

Junior stopper/defensive midfielder Josh Travagli has done a great job making life miserable for the opposition.

“He is doing an excellent job in the back,” Scamarone said. “It’s been tough for the opposition to get anything going with him back there.”

Two of the Pride’s other key players are junior goalie Bryan Atiencia and senior sweeper Jon Scorcia.

“Our goalkeeper, Brian Atiencia, who is very strong, is a solid goalkeeper,” Scamarone said. “It gives us a lot of confidence with him in the goal. He definitely helps us a lot.”

So does having Scorcia at the sweeper position.

“He’s doing very well,” Scamarone said. “Because he and Bryan have been so strong, I can move Josh and Alex up when I have too. Goalie and sweeper are two key positions on the team and they have responded well so far.”

The key to keeping up the team’s success the coach said is consistency.

“We have to continue to help our less experienced players adjust to the varsity level,” Scamarone said. “The key for us keeping up our consistent play is for our younger players to get even more comfortable playing on the varsity.”

Because of the camaraderie that exists between the players on the Pride, Tejera doesn’t feel that will be a problem.

“We are playing well as a team, there is good chemistry between us, the midfielders, defenders and forwards,” Tejera said. “This season I have a lot of friends on the team, so that has helped us play well together.”

Ossining’s next game is at 3 p.m. Saturday Oct. 1 at home against Croton-Harmon.