Wednesday, September 11, 2013

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Pawel Kasica headed hometwo rebounds with two minutes as Wallington came from behind three different times to knock off Leonia, 5-4.

WALLINGTON – Wallington had trailed just about all game long. There was a 1-0 deficit, a 2-1 deficit and the Panthers were behind by a 3-2 score midway through the second half. They had answered back each time, so when a player was sent off with a second yellow card with under 10 minutes to play in regulation of what was then a tie game, it was just on more disadvantage to overcome.

Restarts were Wallington's best friend in the second half and with less than five minutes to play, it got one on the right side just inside the center stripe. Jan Chmura played the free kick, Damian Agaj split two defenders to get onto it and, one dribble and a rip into the side net later, he finished off a hat trick and gave Wallington the winning goal with 4:31 to play in the Panthers' 5-4 victory.

“We had a game like this last year against Garfield in the county tournament with goals going in for both teams. We knew we just had to keep playing and goals were going to come through hard work,” said Agaj, Wallington's junior striker. “We had to keep on working for the whole 90 minutes. It was hot, we were a man down, but still had to keep going and we did that.”

There was another factor on Wallington's side as explained by its head coach.

Baran Sezgin scored Leonia's first goal and assisted on its second,

“To be honest, we got lucky,” said Mike Fromfield. “It would have been easy for us to fold up the tent. We didn't and I am proud of my team for being persistent, but there is some luck involved when you give up four goals and win a game.”

The game settled into its pattern early as the first goal of the game came inside the first 10 minutes and was scored by Leonia's Baran Sezgin, but Agaj answered with the first of his three goals right off the ensuing kickoff. Leonia, playing its opening game of the season, went up 2-1 when Marcus Choi headed home a service from Sezgin in the 16th minute. The Lions had the run of play and had two golden chances to extend their lead, but Wallington keeper David Wdowiak made a diving stop to rob Danillo Lavia's bender toward the near post and Gino Zacarias' hopeful floater was pushed up and onto the bar by Wdowiak.

Instead of being comfortably in front, Leonia had to settle for a halftime tie when Wallington was awarded its second penalty kick of the first half. Agaj made a hard push into the area and was ruled to have been taken down on his way to goal. Agaj made up for his earlier PK miss by burying the ball inside the right post 3:44 before the break, only to see Leonia take the lead right back at 3-2 less than one minute into half No. 2.

Jan Chmura took the free kicks that led to Wallington's final three goals.

The score stayed that way until Wallington won two free kicks from just outside the area and made them both count in strikingly similar circumstances. With 22:28 showing on the clock, Chmura bent a free kick from the middle of the field and 22 yards out around the Leonia wall. The keeper could do no more than use his fists to keep the ball out, but Pawel Kasica chased the rebound and nodded it home to tie the game. Just two minutes later, Chmura spun another restart around the wall and Kasica again flagged down the rebound and headed home to give Wallington its first lead of the game at 4-3.

“I knew I had to go after rebounds because I knew there was going to be a lot of pressure on the goalie on those restarts. Put the pressure on and anything can happen and I was lucky to be in the right spot for both of those goals,” said Kasica. “It was really hot and both teams were tired, but we knew we had to stick together, keep each other motivated and keep fighting. We needed to find a way to win this game.”

Wallington lost its lead with just under nine minutes to play as Leonia got the last touch on a game of ping-pong being contested inside the 6. The ball bounced around until Zacarias could get a toe-poke over the keeper's shoulder to make it 4-4 and Wallington went down a man with 6:35 remaining. But instead of getting behind the ball and hoping to hang on for a tie, the Panthers went to goal.

Marcus Choi headed home the second goal for Leonia, which was playing its season opener.

They nearly scored two on the same sequence, but Leonia's Kevin Zacharias cleared two shots off the line behind his scrambling keeper, but the last restart that Wallington took saw Agaj break through for the game-winner that saved the Panthers from a rough start to their season.

Having lost 3-0 to Harrison on Saturday, Wallington, a perennial Group 1 power with all but two starters back from last year's team that made the Bergen County quarterfinals and won the North 1, Group 1 state sectional title. Wallington avoided what could have been an uncharacteristic 0-2 start in the last go-round for Fromfield, who has been with the program for 14 years and its head coach for the last 12. Fromfield will step down at the end of this season as he prepares to take over as the principal at Wallington High School.

“I am not thinking too far forward at all. I am not thinking about the state tournament, the county tournament or anything else besides trying to get this team better defensively. We gave up three against Harrison and four today and today we were lucky to get away with it,” said Fromfield. “These first two games have shown us what screws we need to tighten and there are a lot of them.”

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