In sports, sometimes the most painful losses can be illuminating, prompting a team to look at its weaknesses in order to find new ways to improve. Bronxville boys soccer coach Donny Lucas hopes that his squad’s 4-0 defeat at the hands of Irvington on Sept. 28 is just the kind of spark his squad needs in order to ignite a strong run in the second half of the season.

Monday afternoon featured a matchup between two of the top-ranked teams in Class B, as the undefeated Bulldogs paid a visit to the Broncos, who have won sectional or regional titles in each of the last two years. The result was a decisive 4-0 win for Irvington, something that Lucas believes was a wakeup call for Bronxville, especially for the less experienced players on the team’s roster. 

“What my boys don’t understand—because they’re so young—is that the last two years, we’ve been the champion, so you’re going to get everybody’s best game,” said Lucas. “My guys don’t understand that when teams play Bronxville, they want to beat you because of the history and tradition.”

Bronxville had some chances early on but was unable to convert those opportunities—which included a penalty kick—into points, leaving the door open for the explosive Bulldogs to take control of the match. Irvington got two goals in the first half and then two more in the second—all coming off the feet of Isaiah Boyles and Brandon Dhanoolal—to secure another impressive win in a season that has been full of them.

“We knew coming in that Irvington was beating teams by three or four goals just about every time out,” Lucas said. “And good teams, when you make a mistake, punish you. Weaker teams let you hang around. Today, we made a couple of mistakes and Irvington was right there to punish us.”

With the loss, Bronxville’s record falls to 6-2-1 on the year, but with just six games left until the regular-season finale—which will see the Broncos travel to Irvington—Lucas is hoping to see his team take a few steps forward in the coming weeks.

“I want to see a little more heart, little more passion, a little more work ethic,” he said.  “We just finished a very long stretch of games where we played seven games in about 14 days. Now we go back to two games a week, and we can focus on our fundamentals and just start working hard again.” 

Bronxville will host crosstown rival Tuckahoe on Wednesday, Sept. 29, after press time.

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