Sound Beach stings Farmingdale to win the U-18 Girls Eastern New York State Open Cup

(ENYYSA / Randy Vogt) – Farmingdale United of the Long Island Junior Soccer League (LIJSL) were six-time defending State Open Cup champs and had won the title an amazing seven times. But that did not matter on May 31 in LaGrange as another LIJSL team, the Sound Beach Stingrays, defeated them, 2-1, in the Girls-Under-18 final for supremacy in the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA).

“Farmingdale has been a tremendous team for a long time and our goal was to be as good as them,” commented Sound Beach coach Noah Stiles. “We scored a goal 10 minutes in and it answered the question if we could really beat them. Our championship was a result of determination and heart.”

Sabrina Barton scored that goal, then Farmingdale’s Katie O’Connor knotted the score at 1-1. Sound Beach’s Sabrina Kornfield scored the game-winner on a toe-poke. Sound Beach keeper Shey Hoffman was tremendous in goal by making 16 saves.

The new champs received a $2,000 check from Eastern New York to defray their costs during the National Championship Series. They will be playing in the Regionals from June 26 to 30 in Barboursville, West Virginia.

Farmingdale did not leave the Hudson Valley without a trophy as they received the Howard Rubenstein Sportsmanship Award for the Fair Play they demonstrated on the field. Now retired, Mr. Rubenstein was seemingly involved in every facet of New York soccer for decades and is a member of the Halls of Fame of Eastern New York, the US Amateur Soccer Association and the Long Island Junior Soccer League.