Friday afternoon produced a bunch of firsts for the Marlboro boys’ soccer team.

It was the Iron Dukes’ first game of the fall 2021 season. It was their first time playing on natural grass this season, and the S.S. Seward Spartans handed them their first loss of the season.

The Iron Dukes kept pace with the Spartans for most of the game, but three Seward goals in the last 15 minutes handed Marlboro, a 5-0 loss at the S.S. Seward Soccer Complex in Florida.

“It wasn’t the outcome we were looking for,” Marlboro coach Jim Ventriglia said. “Our first competition was earlier in the week against Kingston. We made a very good result against them. We tied them. We were pretty confident coming in there, but on any given day, you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

What happened was the Spartans got on the board late in the first half on a goal by Dana Fodera.

The Iron Dukes had a chance to tie the game shortly after on a direct kick by Mark Pesano, who sent a shot high off the crossbar. It bounced back into play where a Marlboro player appeared to head the ball into the net, but the Dukes were ruled to be offsides.

S.S. Seward’s Alex Cotes added a goal just two minutes into the second half, punching the Dukes in the mouth right off the bat.

“If you let down mentally for a just a little bit, it’s a cruel game,” Ventriglia said. “They score a goal and for all that work, there’s nothing and you’re losing. That’s where we were at. They weren’t 100 percent focused and we didn’t play our style of play today. We broke down a lot.”

Even while the Iron Dukes took shots on goal – most of which flew either wide or over the crossbar – the Spartans wore them down and capitalized in the last 15 minutes.

First, Garrett Gill gave the Spartans a 3-0 lead and then five minutes later, Cole Buchalski scored from a corner kick. With less than 9 minutes to go, Gill finished the scoring with his second goal of the day.

“I’m hoping they see the game film and realize they were taking an extra dribble, they were putting their head down. They were kicking the ball direct,” Ventriglia said. “They weren’t doing the things that we’ve really been focusing on and building on in training for the last week and a half.”

Ventriglia is hoping to have those things ironed out by the time the Iron Dukes host Red Hook on Thursday, and then on Saturday, the program is going to honor first responders on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.

The pregame ceremony will begin at 6:30 p.m. with the game scheduled for a 7 p.m. start.

The Dukes are inviting fire, police, EMT, military – both retired and active – to be their guests for the evening. Ventriglia then plans to bring them out at halftime for recognition of their service.

“That was the call after 9/11,” Ventriglia said. “How can I serve right now and many of these people, they answered that call, and many went to Iraq and Afghanistan and sacrificed a lot. I’ve had several friends that were killed in Iraq. It’s bigger than just that day. And, you know, the message of giving back and you know, in serving not only your country but your community and everything at large. We want just to take this humble moment to recognize that.”