On Thursday, October 27th,  Hurricane soccer team’s seniors said their last goodbyes to Westhampton Beach “football club” in a heartbreaking loss to Wyndanch in penalty kicks.

The loss was not the way the Canes expected it to end.  After being down two goals, and tying the game 3-3 with less than five minutes in the game, Senior Phil Daleo scored the game tying goal from a perfect pass from Riley Smith.  The game came down to penalty kicks where Wyndanch started with a early 2-1 lead after three rounds. Young stars Matthew Canavan and Will tucker came through with clutch goals, sadly that wasn’t enough to seal the deal.

Being that this was the Canes first visit to playoff in four seasons, the guys have a lot to be proud of.  Senior captain Riley Smith described the season in one word: “family.”  He continued, “We had great team chemistry which makes us united against our opponents. Playing together as a team has allowed us to trust each player as we play as one.”

Senior Daniel Purkis agreed, “We’ve all been playing together for so long. Some of us started playing with each other in elementary school and we’ve stuck together this whole time.”

A special moment for Purkis this year was when he scored his first career goal. Being a defender he rarely had the chance to score. Putting one in the back of the net was a dream come true for him.

The seniors have built this program into a successful one. They will be missed but the program will still continue to get stronger.  Riley said, “There are many upcoming young sophomores who have started in our 2015- 2016 season and there are also many middle schoolers who have potential in being very good players.”

Daniel Purkis has these words of advice for the rising WHB future players. “The only way to not have regrets at the end of your high school soccer career is to make sure everyday you give it your all to become better. At the end of each day you should ask yourself what did I do today to make sure you’re doing everything you can, in the end you can only be happy with what you have done. Win or lose.”