On Friday, September 19, the Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy (RKA) Tigers hosted Adlai Stevenson in a soccer match at Van Cortlandt Park. The two teams were relatively even matched coming into the game but their performances on the field said otherwise.
The first half was quiet, with both teams fairing evenly on the field. There was one goal by RKA’s Biniyam Estifanos which made the score 1-0 going into the second half.
The second half saw RKA becoming sloppy and Stevenson taking advantage of the holes and becoming more intense with every play. Bismark Opoku became the leader for Stevenson, scoring a goal just as the half began and later scoring a second goal with just 4:30 left in regulation.
Head coach for Stevenson, Rick Ouimet, shouted “Keep Positive!” almost throughout the entire second half. It was that spirit and belief that they could win that enabled his team to remain victorious. “We made RKA pay for their mistakes, said Ouimet, “They’re a good team but we took advantage of their errors and it paid off in the end.” The coach noted that even though his team has a good record, they need to practice taking the move off of the ball.
RKA coach Will Cushing attributed the loss to his young team saying, “We have good intensity but we are young and need to grow and develop more.” Cushing also stated that it doesn’t matter how good of a team you are in practice or how much potential you have, noting that what really matters is finishing what you start.
