Nathanson leads boys soccer revival at Tottenville

Damien Vuotto has seen both ends of the spectrum at Tottenville, the low of last place his freshman year and high of first this fall. He was there when the program was a footnote in the athletic department’s proud cadre of programs. It doesn’t take him long to explain what has changed.

“Better practicing – stronger, longer, harder,” the senior keeper said.

With that, he glanced over at Ron Nathanson, the third-year coach, and nodded. He is the man -- the Pirates say -- responsible for the abrupt turn in the program’s fortunes, from cellar dweller to city title contender.

Damion Reid

Tottenville coach Ron Nathanson has led the Pirates' turnaround, from worst to first, in three years.

Damion Reid

Tottenville keeper Damien Vuotto has eight shutouts this year, leading the Pirates to the Staten Island A crown.

“We knew from his first game everything would be different,” said striker Allan Tarkatchev, who transferred from Monsignor Farrell before last year. “Everything was more efficient.”

The Pirates knew Nathanson as the JV baseball coach, and saw how smoothly that program was run.

It took Nathanson just three years to establish a winning identity with the soccer team. The year before he arrived, Tottenville was 2-10-0, shutout seven times. But the Pirates made the playoffs his first season and again last year. This fall, Nathanson took them to another level, a first division crown in several seasons, snapping Curtis’ five-year reign.

The tone was set late last year, when Tottenville faltered down the stretch.

“This year we went full throttle from the get go,” Nathanson said.

Others have noticed.

“He’s built a great team,” Curtis coach Joyce Simonson said. “They’re extremely disciplined, very balanced. They play the ball, pass the ball and spread the scoring around.”

Nathanson isn’t blessed with a superstar striker, so he has instilled a selfless approach. Cihan Yildiz, who Nathanson said makes up for lack of skill with aggression and toughness, leads the Tots with 13 goals, and Tarkatchev, a senior blessed with a rocket for a right foot, had added 11 tallies.

“When we play unselfish we can beat anyone, and we’ve been playing unselfish,” Nathanson said.

They have done so with a sterling back line – led by senior sweeper William McMillen and junior stopper Ruzhdi Alibegu – and the brilliance in net of Vuotto, a 5-foot-11 senior who frequently comes off his line and is as athletic as he is quick. The four-year starter has registered eight clean sheets and boasts a 0.714 goals-against-average.

In a recent 3-2 loss to Curtis, Tottenville’s first and only setback in league play, Vuotto made 21 saves. In one sequence, he made a brilliant kick save of a low Joseph Romero shot, then as he lay on the ground, punched a Kareem Crawford bullet wide.

“Incredible,” Simonson said then.

His most important performance was the 5-1 victory over Curtis, the win that proved to be the difference in the Staten Island A race at the season’s culmination. That night in Huguenot, he made 18 saves, several of them spectacular.

“It all starts with our keeper,” Nathanson said.

More than anything, Nathanson made believers out of the Pirates. There was a time, more than a decade ago, Tottenville was known for boys soccer, making the city final three years in a row in the mid 1990s.

The Pirates aren’t just enjoying themselves on the field, but in school, as well. Teachers and classmates have taken notice. They aren’t the butt of jokes anymore.

“We just got respect,” Tarkatchev said.

He expected to win, and win he has. The division title, however gratifying, isn’t enough. Nathanson wants more, as do his players. Tarkatchev said he hopes to face three-time defending champion Martin Luther King; last year Tottenville fell in the opening round, costing them a meeting with the nationally ranked Knights.

“I expect to go far in the city playoffs,” Nathanson said. “I think we can get to the city championship, I really do.”

zbraziller@nypost.com