Monday, November 22, 2010

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Cliffside Park celebrated its second Group 2 state championship in the last three years after a 1-0 win over Haddon Heights on Sunday at TCNJ.

EWING – Even with two straight appearances in the Group 2 state final and co-championship to its credit, the Cliffside Park boys soccer team came into this season knowing that anything short of an outright Group 2 state title would be a disappointment.

With a wealth of big-game experience, an all-state caliber goaltender, a desire to succeed, and the best player in the history of the program in striker Exau Paz coming back, the Red Raiders had all of the pieces to be a championship team. The only thing missing was a state championship trophy that they didn’t have to share with anyone.

Paz has been a difference-maker ever since he stepped onto the scene as a freshman, and was so again in the final game of his illustrious career. He scored on a header with 10 minutes to play in the first half. The defense made sure it stood up by allowing just one shot on net in the second half as Cliffside Park won its first outright Group 2 state title with a 1-0 win over Haddon Heights Sunday night at The College of New Jersey in Ewing.

“This is amazing, we’ve wanted to be state champs all year and we finally have it all to ourselves,” said Cliffside Park goaltender Pedro Sanchez. “We worked hard every day to get here and I’m glad we held on.”

Exau Paz is Cliffside Park's all-time leading goal scorer and his last one was enough to give the Red Raiders a state title.

Haddon Heights came into to the Group 2 title game looking for its first state crown since 1974. But the Garnets were clearly not intimidated and with good reason. George Gans is one of the state’s most dangerous offensive players and he zipped his way through the Red Raiders’ vaunted defense twice in the opening 15 minutes. Ten minutes into the match, he made a scintillating run that forced Sanchez off of his line before the shot trickled just inches wide of the right post. Five minutes later, he made a similar run and the shot was again wide of the right post.

“We definitely dodged a couple of bullets early,” said Cliffside Park defender Mike Scarzafava. “We saw (Gans) was real quick with the ball and he definitely got the attention of our defense. Once we settled in, we knew what we had to do and force someone else to beat us besides him.”

“To put it bluntly, a couple of inches here and there and we’re down two goals,” said Cliffside Park head coach Jim Fucci. “This game can be a game of inches and we were fortunate not be down early. But we survived that and we started to get more comfortable as the game went on.”

The Red Raiders got into a rhythm midway through the first half and quickly took control of the possession game in the midfield before scoring on a vintage Cliffside run. Paz backheeled a pass to Santiago Pazmino, who touched around a defender along the right wing, then sent a long cross towards the back post. Paz snuck in behind the Haddon Heights defense and was unmarked from eight yards out. He got a head on the cross and it went just inside the right post to give the Red Raiders a 1-0 lead.

Before leaving 2:18 early, CP keeper Pedro Sanchez made one key save to keep Haddon Heights off the board.

“I saw the defense didn’t catch me on my run and I got in good position,” said Paz, whose goal was his 34th on the season and the 95th of his career. “I snuck into an opening on the left side and was able to get a head on the cross from (Pazmino).”

Sanchez finished six saves for Cliffside Park, but needed to make only one big one, which came with 8:19 to play in the half. Off of 30-yard direct kick from Haddon Heights’ Austin McCleery that curved over the Red Raiders’ five-man wall, Sanchez went to his right and laid out full-extension to punch away the potential tying goal as Cliffside maintained its lead going into the second half.

After being on their heels early in the first half, the Red Raiders went on the offensive and set the tone in the second. They dominated possession and allowed just two shots over the first 37:42 of the second half. That is when frustration boiled over for Gans as he threw (and landed) a punch thrown at a Cliffside Park defender. Sanchez came out to defend his teammate and both benches cleared.

“The only thing that tarnished our win in any way was what happened at the end there,” added Fucci. “We have never had anything close to that happen in my 11 years here. We pride ourselves on playing with class and dignity and for a little while, both teams lost their composure. But they are high school kids and sometimes stuff like that is unfortunately going to happen. We had to get our heads on straight and refocus on closing out the game.”

The end result of the skirmish was not a favorable one for Cliffside as Sanchez was given a red card and ejected, while Gans was allowed to stay in the game. That meant that the Red Raiders had to play with backup goaltender Bryant Olathe while being a man down for the final 2:18. It also stirred up bad memories as Cliffside Park scored with 1:14 left to take a one-goal lead over Delran in the 2008 Group 2 state final, only to see Delran tie the game seven seconds later and leave Cliffside Park with its first-ever state title, but one they ultimately had to share.

Sebastain Zapata and the CP seniors leave with four league titles, four state sectional titles, two state titles and zero home losses over the last four years.

“It definitely crept into my mind while play was stopped and we had time to think, but I quickly got it out of my head,” added Paz. “I knew we were going to hold on. We’ve come too far and we were so close not to win this game.”

Haddon Heights pushed everyone, even goaltender Jon Weaver, up in one final push for the tying goal. The Garnets had one last chance when 35 seconds remaining, but a header in the box went well wide as the final whistle finally allowed the Red Raiders to claim their second state title in three years. This time they got to celebrate it alone.

For the 12 Cliffside Park seniors, it was the end of an era. Four sectional titles in four years, 85 wins over those four years, a 24-1 record this year, three state finals appearances, two Group 2 titles, zero home losses and, most importantly, one final celebration to cap off the best season in school history.

“I couldn’t think of a better way for these seniors to go out,” added Fucci. “We have two four-year starters, five three-year starters, four two-year starters, and some seniors off the bench who played pivotal roles today and throughout the season. This is how we envisioned ending our season and it’s a great feeling for these kids to come through under pressure and come away with the hardware.”

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