East Meadow boys’ soccer is a true definition of a team, a cohesive unit that has impressed coach Bryan Horrmann in the early portions of the season.
“Certain teams have studs, and they try to feed it to the one kid. We have kids who can all do it,” he said. “I feel like they’re buying into we defend with 11, we attack with 11, and everyone is capable. I think it’s the most mentally healthy, emotionally structured team I’ve had in a while.”
And it’s a team that is the quickest to 10 points since Horrmann has coached the Jets. East Meadow raced out of the gates unbeaten in its first four games, defeating Valley Stream Central, Farmingdale, and Herricks, while drawing at Baldwin to top the table in Nassau Conference AAA.
Last Saturday, the Jets drew Westbury, 0-0.
“We have a lot of kids who are just put your head down and run through a wall for you. We’ve had to build this focus since day one, so the kids are buying it, which is good,” Horrmann said. “Plenty of season left, obviously, and this AAA league is no joke. You’re fighting every game, but I like hot starts, and we have to keep the momentum building and play as a unit.”
The message from Horrmann is the same as 2023, when East Meadow won its first-ever county championship, defeating Plainview JFK, 4-3, in the Class AAA final.
“That mentality is take one half at a time,” Horrmann said. “No matter what game you’re in, we’re not looking too far ahead, we’re looking at the game that we have because anything could happen on any given day.”
Helping deliver that message are two holdovers from that county championship squad — Matt Rivas and Michael Valente.
Rivas, a dynamic senior who can play up front or in the midfield and has one of the hardest shots on the team, has taken a step up in leadership and already has two goals and two assists on the season.
Another early standout is Dayton Wauchope, whose older brother Dylan was a star on the county championship team two years ago and is a freshman on the Hofstra men’s soccer team.
“Dayton is very quick, very sleek on the ball, he’s a danger if I put him on the wing, if I put him up top,” Horrmann said of the junior who already has two goals. “He gets double-teamed constantly because they know him. But he’s a special player. He’s very shifty, has a great left foot, and smells the goal a lot. He wants to go in and score. He’s aggressive.”
Joel DelRosario is another leader, who orchestrates and organizes the midfield in front of a strong back four of Chris Carpio, Matt O’Leary, Evan Velez, and Brayan Soto, a transfer from Westbury.
DelRosario shares the captaincy with Adel Deljanin, who went from playing sparingly as a junior to being a man-marking specialist as a senior, while goalkeeper Marvin Espada has already accumulated 33 saves.
