Babylon boys soccer's season ends in Class B Southeast Regional final
Logan Borruso of Babylon, right, gets pressured by Ani Thaker of Briarcliff during the state Class B boys soccer regional final at Harborfields High School on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. Credit: James Escher
Babylon’s Carter Palmieri readied himself and delivered one of his patented long throw-ins into the box. Logan Borruso jumped and headed the ball behind him into the top-left corner of the net to equalize with just 1:37 left in the first half against Section I’s Briarcliff.
GOAL, BABYLON: 1-1. HALFTIME.
— Michael Sicoli (@Michael__Sicoli) November 7, 2026
With just 1:37 left in the half after a very Briarcliff-sided first half, Logan Borruso heads in the equalizer off a throw-in from Carter Palmieri.
Exactly what the Panthers needed before the break. pic.twitter.com/67fZCuFuhB
Briarcliff controlled possession throughout the first half leading up to Borruso’s goal, and it wouldn’t get easier for Babylon, who would go on to lose, 3-1, to the Bears Saturday at Harborfields High School in the Southeast Regional Class B final.
“It’s unfortunate,” Babylon coach Dennis McGovern said. “Our young ones played like young ones tonight. Hats off to [Briarcliff]; they put a lot of pressure on us.”
Babylon started the year with a 1-4 record before rattling off 13 consecutive wins. The third-seeded Panthers had a worse record than Mattituck and Southampton in the Class B playoffs; Babylon won anyway.
A matchup against then-undefeated Carle Place? Another day, another win for the Panthers.
So, after goalkeeper Jack Fifield made eight of his nine saves in the first half as Briarcliff (18-1-2) took advantage of gaps in the midfield, Borruso’s goal served as yet another example of the gritty play Babylon exemplified all season.
“The talk at halftime was not so much about resiliency, but about playing the way we did for the first 38 minutes of that half,” Briarcliff coach Paul Bordonaro said. “(Babylon) is a great team. We haven’t played a team that defends as well and as hard as they do.”
JP Lockwood scored two goals for Briarcliff, and Rohan Karnik added a third with 5:57 remaining in the game. Babylon (14-5) will graduate 11 seniors, including four starters.
Danny Murphy is one of those four, a multi-year captain for the program. With returning players in Fifield, Borruso and Lenric Mejia — a player who epitomized hustle Saturday night — there are plenty of signs that the standard Murphy and the senior class set can and will be carried on.
“[Murphy] knows how we do things,” McGovern said. “He knows we defend first. I hope enough of him has rubbed off on the younger guys, and we’ll see next year.”
Michael Sicoli covers high school sports for Newsday. He graduated from Quinnipiac in 2022 and left with a master’s degree in sports journalism in 2023.
