Wednesday,
September 18, 2013
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Brett Lubben scored from the penalty spot for the only goal that River Dell needed to get its first win of the season, 1-0, over Mahwah on Tuesday. |
ORADELL – With just two games played in the young season and with a talented team, it would be hard to call River Dell's boys soccer game against Mahwah on Tuesday a 'must win.' But...
“It was a must win. It had to be. As good a team as Mahwah is and how we have started the season, we had to win this game,” said River Dell head coach John Graham. “We had two tough games to start against Pascack Hills and Ramsey and this was another one, but we had to get some points out of it, no question.”
Mahwah was in similar straights having lost its opener, which made this an important game for the middle of September. The problem for both teams is not what they have done between the 18s, but near and inside the penalty areas. Goals have been hard to come by and they were again on Tuesday with River Dell getting one early in the second half and hanging on for a 1-0 win.
The goal came from a restart in the 44th minute when Justin Fernandez played an in-swinger that was dangerous as soon as it left his foot. The ball cleared the keeper as it bent toward the back post and forced Mahwah defender Eric Sirinian into unsolvable riddle. With the ball above his head and maybe already over the goal line as he manned the back post, Sirinian used a hand to keep the ball out.
That resulted in only a temporary reprieve as River Dell won both ends of the bargain. The Hawks got a penalty kick, which senior midfielder Brett Lubben buried for the game's lone goal, and got to play a man up for the final 36:37 as a deliberate handling of the ball is an automatic sending off.
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Michael Kayal, a freshman making his first varsity start, played well in the Mahwah net. |
“Mistakes have been the problem. Not necessarily the hand ball because that was probably going in anyway, but giving up the corner kick in the first place was a mistake and we made some in the first game [a loss to Pascack Hills] as well,” said Mahwah head coach Vince Vespe. “It's early in the season and we have a lot of new guys, but we have to get it cleaned up in a hurry.”
The sequence was just the offensive break that River Dell has been looking for the first week-plus of the season and Lubben made showed no hesitation in finishing from the spot.
“Our sweeper Chris Van De Weghe came up to me right before I hit it and said 'You got this.' That gave me some confidence that my teammates were behind me and I just picked by side and went with it,” said Lubben. “This really was a must win game if we want to reach our goals of winning a league title or doing anything in the counties or states. People haven't seen what we are capable of yet and we had to start to day before it gets too late.”
River Dell almost took a first half lead in the 15th minute when Lubben took possession in the middle of the field and quickly played one over the top and into a dangerous a spot. The race was between Fernandez and the Mahwah combination of goalkeeper Michael Kayal and defender Cesar Diaz. Kayal came out to the top of the area enough to knock Hernandez off stride as a high bounce took it over all three of them and Fernandez was able to nudge in front on backside to keep Hernandez from finishing.
Lubben almost opened the scoring five minutes later when he drove the middle before ripping a low screamer that was ticketed for the inside of the right post before Kayal, a freshman making his first varsity start, dove to his left to push it around the post.
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Justin Fernandez was in the middle of most of River Dell's best scoring chances. |
After River Dell took the lead early in the second half, its defense did the rest of the hard work as it held Mahwah (0-2) to just two shots on goal of the final 40 minutes, neither of them particularly dangerous. River Dell keeper David Sorkenn was more a a traffic cop and coraller of crosses than a than goaltender under duress.
“It would have been nice to have a more comfortable lead, but our defense did a good job of what we have been working on and that is clearing the ball out of the box. It was a little more pressure because we were protecting a 1-0 lead, but my defense handled it really well,” said Sorkenn, a senior. “We know that if we are composed in the back, if we keep our shape and keep track of our marks that we will be good and it worked today.”
Kayal faced a little more traffic inside his 6-yard box and stood up well. He was strong on a high ball in which he punched the ball away from a Hernandez aerial challenge in the 58th minute and also distributed the ball well from the back. Sorkenn's most important contribution came with just over 13 minutes to play when Mahwah's Kevin Tremblay forced his way through two defenders and was able to poke one on net, but Sorkenn got low to make a sure-handed save on the Thunderbirds' last real scoring chance.
River Dell (1-2) made a spirited run from the No. 10 seed to the North 1, Group 3 state sectional semifinals last season, its first under Graham, and is hoping that its first win gets it heading back in that direction. Mahwah is the defending North 1, Group 2 state sectional champion and has some work to do if its has hopes of defending its title in an always tough bracket.
“The good news is that we played better in this game then we did in our first one and we showed improvement. We are young and our guys have to get used to the speed and intensity of a varsity game,” said Vespe. “I am just trying to keep their heads up and getting them to stay positive. We can play well we get it going and think today, with the improvement we showed, was a step in the right direction.”
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