It doesn’t matter what the level is. If you don’t have a good goalkeeper, hopes of having a successful soccer season will be in jeopardy. Teams need to have the good hands people.

“You rely on your keeper to make that save or saves to keep you in the game. The game is tied; you’re up by one, you’re down by one,” said veteran soccer coach Chris Golden, who directs the Mattituck/Southold/Greenport girls’ team.

It’s more than skill. Keepers need to be mentally tough, especially after conceding a goal, their fault or not.

“It’s different because of the nature of the position,” said Southold’s Andrew Sadowski, entering his 31st season as the dean of Suffolk County boys’ soccer coaches. “They have to think differently. They have to act differently. Their leadership role is very different than a field player.

“The hardest thing about being a goalkeeper is everyone is looking at the keeper and how they play,” Sadowski continued. “They make a mistake; everyone knows the goalkeeper made the mistake. Do they talk about how many players miss shots and sky them over the top? Field players are given the opportunity to make many mistakes. It’s forgivable. At what point do the fans and teammates forgive a goalkeeper for letting in a goal? That’s the hardest thing for a goalkeeper mentally, to handle that situation.”

“They’re different kinds of personalities,” said former Suffolk Times sports editor Bob Liepa, a respected goalkeeper in the Long Island Soccer Football League years ago. “It’s almost like you have to make pressure your friend. It’s a big game, very tense, tight situation, but I’m going to embrace it.”

All four North Fork high school soccer coaches feel their teams will be in capable hands this season.

MSG sophomore Hunter Mackey will make her varsity debut.

Senior Kal-El Marine, who played for the first time last year, returns to Greenport.

Junior Travis Sepenoski, a three-sport standout, will be tasked with stopping shots for Southold.

Coach Dan O’Sullivan has two options for guarding the Mattituck goal — senior Peter Ixcotoyac-Krogulec and sophomore Chris Cuellar.

Hunter Mackey, Mattituck/Southold/Greenport

When she was just 7 years old, the goalie on Mackey’s youth squad was injured and she was put in the net as an emergency fill-in.

“I fell in love with it,” she said.

Not many players would embrace that role at such a young age.

“I just love that feeling when you make a really good save, and everyone just cheers you on,” the 5-foot-9-inch sophomore said.

Mackey hopes supporters will cheer her as she makes the leap from JV.

“It was really exciting to join the team,” she said. “Everyone’s so nice and kind. It’s just a nice community to be part of.”

Golden has liked what he has seen from Mackey, who honed her craft at goalkeeping camps.

“Just her dedication to the sport and just improving as a player,” he said. “She wants to be the best goalkeeper she can be. She works out. She has keeper training. She’s always asking, ‘What can I do or work on?’ ”

Mackey said her strengths are diving for the ball and punting.

“You can see by her size, and only a sophomore, she’s going to make some great saves,” Golden said. “She’s going to keep us in some games. She’s just going to keep getting better.”

Mackey’s goals?

“I want to try to make it on varsity, and I want to win the championship, or at least try to get counties,” she said.

Kal-El Marine, Greenport

After Collin McDaniel helped the Porters to the 2022 Class D state semifinals, Marine noticed the team didn’t have a dedicated netminder. Despite having no experience, he volunteered.

“I’m not the most skilled player on the team; a bunch of other people were very skilled,” he said. “I think I’d be a pretty good goalkeeper. Since we didn’t have one, I might as well try it out.”

Coach Greg Dlhopolsky said it was a selfless decision.

“It speaks a lot to his character,” he said. “Especially in this day and age — I feel like we’re in a very ‘me-centric’ society — for somebody like him to come in and fill a spot that we needed.”

Named to the All-League IX team, Marine helped steer Greenport to the Class C county final last year.

“From day one in practice, he tried to learn as much as he could, understand how to play the position,” Dlhopolsky said. “He wound up being such an asset. 

“He’s a tough kid. He plays hard every game. He shows up every practice. Not having to worry about the goalkeeper position is great.”

Added Marine: “I think I did pretty well. I definitely could have done better. There are times I would be nervous. I just thought, ‘I’m going do this for my seniors, because they’ve done so much for me.’ ”

Now, the 5-7, 158-pound goalkeeper is a senior himself.

Marine, whose family moved from Mattituck to Greenport during his sophomore year, had his most memorable match against the Tuckers. The Porters lost two earlier games while surrendering eight goals. On Oct. 11, he stood on his head, making 10 saves in a 1-0 road win.

“Whenever we play them, no matter what sport it is, I take it a little differently,” he said. “Not only was it confidence for myself, but my teammates. I feel like they trusted me a bit more. That also was a big part in what helped me become better.”

After the final whistle, Marine ran to assistant coach Pedro Rodriguez “because he taught me everything that I know in goal.”

Dlhopolsky said it was “one of the better displays you’ll see from a keeper in high school. He saved everything that came his way, including a penalty shot, and some point-blank cannons unleashed to him that he was able to get in front of.”

Travis Sepenoski, Southold

Sepenoski also competes in basketball and baseball, but knows his favorite sport.

“Soccer,” he said. “Soccer has been the sport that I’ve really enjoyed a lot. When I’m playing, I always have a good time. It is fun. I enjoy playing pick-up a lot. It’s fun and you mess around with your friends.”

During the second day of preseason, the 5-11, 160-pound junior was all business.

Sadowski pointed out Sepenoski’s leadership skills, noting that he is the first back on the field after a water break.

“The biggest thing that impressed me was his passion to be a competitor,” he said. “He does everything 110%. Sometimes his passion and his incredible desire and wanting to be successful as a team, sometimes we have to rein that in, because there are players that are at different levels, and certainly not at his level of passion, that confidence in his ability. He does all the field player drills. It helps him understand the game better. He’s one of the top jugglers on the team. He wants to learn more about the game. His goalkeeping technique has improved tremendously in two short years. We’re looking forward to a good, strong year.”

It’s all about the team for Sepenoski. Asked about his most memorable save, he replied, “Wins, those games that stand out. I don’t care how many goals I gave up, as long as the team wins.”

Sepenoski will take the blame for a goal.

“No matter how it goes in, I always think it’s my fault,” he said. “On some goals, it’s a good shot, or someone makes a mistake. You’ve got to be mad for five seconds. Once the whistle blows, you just got to forget about it.”

Peter Ixcotoyac-Krogulec and Chris Cuellar, Mattituck

Senior Ixcotoyac-Krogulec and sophomore Cuellar have some big shoes to fill. Jack Golder, who graduated last year, set a school-career shutout record (23) on a team that boasted talented keepers through the decades.

“It’s going to be a battle,” coach Dan O’Sullivan said.

In 2018, when he was just 9, Cuellar watched his brother Oswald, a midfielder, fill in as an emergency keeper due to a red-card suspension to the regular goalie. Oswald acquitted himself well in a 2-1 loss at Center Moriches.

“The one time he goes in the net, he gets a newspaper article,” Chris said. “I look up to him. I’m proud of him.”

Cuellar became a goalie because of Oswald. “My brother needed someone to shoot at,” he said. “I would hop in. I just found everything usual to me.”

It grew on him. “I like being the last line of [defense] and saving them,” he said. “Say it was a final, I would be the star. I saved goals, and nothing went in.”

It happened in 2020, when 6-foot, 140-pound Cuellar made four saves in a penalty-kick shootout for his club team, to win a tournament in New Jersey.

“He knows how to work a back line,” O’Sullivan said. “He’s very good with his communication. He’s been playing goalie his whole life.”

During a Brookhaven Summer League match in July, Ixcotoyac-Krogulec turned heads when he produced four quick saves in succession.

“It was definitely a good thing to kick off the season,” he said.

Last week, while working out with the field players on the first day of practice, 5-11, 215-pound Ixcotoyac-Krogulec turned his head and glanced toward goalkeeper training.

“I know I will be over there at some point,” said Ixcotoyac-Krogulec, who also plays defensive midfielder and center back.

“We’re lucky that Pete is a field player. Definitely a huge help,” O’Sullivan said. “Pete is such a hard worker that we could put him in net today.”

Ixcotoyac-Krogulec said he became a goalkeeper because his youth team needed one. “Just looking at a bunch of highlight reels from professional goalkeepers,” he said, “and loving what I saw and wishing that was me.”