Guy-Roland Kpene has played soccer at the highest club level in the United States, competing with D.C. United and the Houston Dynamo in Major League Soccer and he won a Division II national championship with Dowling College.
But the native of the Ivory Coast was just as pleased Friday night when he helped lead Port Jefferson to the LISFL Cangero Cup title following a 3-0 win over Oyster Bay Fenebahce USA at Mitchel Athletic Complex in Uniondale.
“It’s always good to win,” Kpene said. “My philosophy is whatever you do, you always have to go all the way, 100 percent always trying to win. It feels good.”
One reason why the Cup-clinching victory was so special is because Port Jefferson is such a tight-knit squad.
“We know each other, we’ve been playing for four, five, six years together,” Kpene said. “It was easy for us because we’re a family.”
After surviving an early scare when OB Fenebahce’s Tom Clements put a low shot just wide of the far post from 16 yards, Port Jeff nearly took the lead when former Stony Brook star Raphael Abreu hammered the ball off the crossbar in the 17th minute.
Elysee Vilsaint put Port Jefferson in front with the first of his two goals in the 22nd minute. The Haitian-born forward, who was a standout at Division III York College in Queens, knocked the ball in after Robert Kwafo’s header was cleared off the line.
One minute later, Kpene doubled Port Jefferson’s lead.
“The ball wasn’t for me,” Kpene said. “But I kind of sensed the goalkeeper was not going to come out so I went for it, touched it and finished it easy.”
Port Jefferson continued to dominate after halftime as John Calaci put a first-time volley off the post in the 53rd minute.
OB Fenebahce received a lifeline in the 67th minute when Sean Dougherty was booked for a foul inside the box and MLS referee Jorge Gonzalez pointed to the penalty spot. Clements, an Englishman who played for Fairfield University, is nearly automatic on penalty kicks, but Damion Brown took the chance and put it off the crossbar.
It proved to be a critical miss as Vilsaint put the game on ice on a quick counter, rounding goalkeeper Andre Willkinson and putting the ball into the open net two minutes from full time.
“When they’re pushing up you have to watch for that last pass,” Vilsaint said. “All alone with the goalie, you have to finish that.”
All that was left was the celebration and Port Jefferson did plenty of that after the final whistle.
“It feels great,” Vilsaint said. “We worked hard for this, especially the coach. We did this for him.”
Before receiving the Cangero Cup and posing for pictures, Vilsaint and his teammates lifted coach Craig Korobow on their shoulders and later doused him with a bucket of ice.
“I’m freezing, but it’s a great feeling,” Korobow said. “I consider all of them my friends and that’s what keeps us together, friendship and brotherhood. They refer to themselves as brothers a lot and that’s why we’re successful.”
The Cangero Cup is named after Anthony Cangero, a longtime Glen Cove resident who was inducted into the Eastern New York State Amateur Soccer Association Hall of Fame in 2002 and was president of the LIJSF for more than 12 years before losing a battle with cancer on Sept. 7, 2004.
One of Cangero’s lasting legacies was the creation of the Super Cup, which debuted at Mitchel Athletic Complex in 1996 and was won by Queens-based New York Irish Rovers over Mineola Alheirense SC.
