Saturday, September 8, 2007

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Joe Frankovic is one of 10 seniors on the roster at Cliffside Park, which won its season opener on Friday, 4-0, over BCSL-American rival Fort Lee.

CLIFFSIDE PARK -- The Cliffside Park boys soccer team had plenty of motivation heading into Game 1 of the new year on Friday afternoon. Not only was there the usual excitement that goes along with the first game of the season, there was also familiar opponent, a Fort Lee program that had beaten the Red Raiders three of the last four times they have played.

The Bridgemen swept Cliffside last season by a combined score of 4-0 on the way to the BCSL-American Division championship and the Red Raiders' 10 seniors were fired up to return the favor.

“We came out with a lot of energy. We couldn’t wait to get the season started especially knowing that it was going to be against Fort Lee on our field,” said Cliffside midfielder Hussein Jaffar. “Coach [Jim Fucci] has never lost a season opener in his seven years here and as a senior and a captain that added a little pressure because we didn’t want that streak to end. Once the game started, though, we forgot about all the other stuff and just played hard.”

Cliffside (1-0) wasted little time in taking control after the opening whistle and went ahead for good just under six minutes in. Senior Ezzy Barberis played a cross in from the left of Fort Lee keeper Roddy Ackermann and it turned into the assist on the first goal in the carsity career of freshman striker Xavier Paz. Paz went up above the crowd and headed the ball off the inside of the first post and into the back of the net.

It was a busy day for Fort Lee keeper Roddy Ackerman.

The Raiders added two more goals before halftime to open a wide cushion on the way to a 4-0 win, the first of what they hope is many in a season of high expectations.

“We had lost three of the last four to Fort Lee, they took a league title away from us in each of the last two years and we knew that Coach [Bob] Ciccone was going to have his boys ready. It’s always a physical match,” said Fucci. “I thought the difference in the game was in the 50/50’s. I think the 50/50's were 90-10 in our advantage, I thought we dominated the midfield with balls in the air and our outside halfbacks, especially Roberto Menendez, did an excellent winning every 50/50 ball.”

And while Cliffside did start two freshman and four sophomores, the Raiders' youngsters were sprinkled in amongst more experienced players and backed by a solid bench, which was used to its fullest. It is a different story, however, for Fort Lee, which was hit hard by graduation and is sporting a host of new players. The Bridgemen are in the unenviable position of breaking in a new cast while wearing the bulls eye of a defending league champion.

Cliffside Park freshman Xavier Paz scored twice in his first ever varsity game.

“We lost a lot of speed, we lost a lot of everything. We lost three guys in the back, three midfielders and a forward, and that is very hard to replace. Then we open up with Cliffside and then Tenafly,” said Ciccone, who is in his 11th season as the Fort Lee head coach. “We have our hands full because everybody is gearing up to go after Fort Lee and that is fine, but we just lost so much scoring, so much strength and so much speed. We have a long way to go.”

Playing on the turf with no shade on a hot day and in front of a sizable crowd for a soccer match, Cliffside had plenty of advantages to exploit. The Red Raiders’ speed and their ability to sub quality for quality at will eventually wore down the Bridgemen.

The Raiders had a 12-2 advantage in shots and it took a solid outing by Fort Lee keeper Roddy Ackerman to keep his team relatively close. He made a couple of point blank stops, but he couldn’t keep everything out as Cliffside kept up the pressure.

In the 19th minute, CP senior Hugo Sanchez, who did not start and is working his way back into the rotation, scored some hustle points by pressuring a defender near the endline and winning a corner. Sanchez took the restart and flew it onto the head of Mike Kwiecinski, who made it 2-0.

Hussein Jaffar scored Cliffside's third goal on a bender from 30 yards out.

“Coach [Fucci] was has taught us about the importance of 50/50’s. As you could see, we won a lot of balls in the air and we were using everybody in switches,” said Kwiecinski, a junior. “We used our fullbacks for switches, we moved the ball quickly and they were getting tired of chasing us.”

Cliffside’s prettiest goal was its last of the first half. Jaffar dispossessed a Fort Lee midfielder about 30 yards from goal and his next touch was a slicing floater that started out at the near post and cut all the way into the upper 90 on the opposite side. That made it 3-0 and Paz, the younger brother of Cliffside’s senior keeper Isaac Paz (2 saves), scored his second varsity goal in his first varsity game, closing the scoring with just over 21 minutes left. Xavier Paz hit a rip from 20 yards out that went off a defender’s foot and recharted its course to just under the crossbar.

“We used our support nice, we switched in our back third nice, we had our strikers checking and I think we distributed the ball well,” said Fucci. “Be we are not fully prepared yet, we are not that good. We can be that good but that depends on our effort and our discipline on the field and off. We have a game on Monday then we have a week of training and we will have a chance to get better.”

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