Friday,
October 11, 2013
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Garrett Rosen scored the game's first goal and its last for Glen Rock, which outlast Emerson in a penalty kick shootout to win, 3-3 (4-1 PKs) in the opening round of the Bergen County Tournament.
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GLEN ROCK – There were times during Thursday's match in the opening round of the Bergen County Tournament that Emerson head coach Sergio Silva had seven sophomores and two freshmen on the pitch at the same time. At one point in the second half with his team trailing by two goals to Glen Rock, Silva turned to his assistant coach and said, “You can't train experience.” Emerson had been in the county tournament just once before in its history and had never won a game, so experience was not on its side against Glen Rock, a consistent presence in playoff games under head coach Paul Cusack.
On the other side of it, there is no way to 'train momentum' either. It is an intangible that is only recognizable when it happens and it happened for Emerson in the second half of what turned into one of the best first round games played in a long time.
Emerson trailed 2-0 at the half and by 3-1 with just over 20 minute to play in regulation before 'momentum kicked in. The Cavos scored twice in a two-minute span to tie it, forcing two scoreless overtimes and a penalty kick shootout that was conducted in the greyness of all out twilight. When that was over, Emerson had its big game experience, but it was Glen Rock that had the up-for-grabs place in the Round of 16 with a 3-3 (4-1 PKs) win.
“We played a great 20 minutes in the middle of the first half to take a 2-0 lead, but once they got the momentum it was hard to take back and all of the credit has to go to that Emerson team,” said Cusack. “We scored to go up 3-1 in the second half and you figure that we should be able to hold on to that two-goal lead, but they just did a great job, attacked down the flanks and persevered to make it 3-3. Anything can happen in PKs, we practice them and we went 4 for 4. We would have liked to have gotten the win outright, but we got the tie and we get to keep moving on in the tournament.”
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Emerson senior Ryan Bartel had a goal, an assist and lots of dangerous runs from the flank. |
Either team would have been a deserving entrant into the Round of 16 against fifth-seeded Bergen Catholic and Emerson served notice right away that it was going to make a run at it. Ryan Bartel, the Cavos' senior midfielder/striker, who was a handful on the flanks all game, walked on to ball and hit a rocket from 15 yards out just five minutes into the game that Glen Rock keeper John Hayden got down to save at his right post.
Emerson had the better of play through the first 10 minutes, but it was Glen Rock that got the first goal on its first shot of the game. Jake McMahon drew the defense toward the middle of the field and then put on Garrett Rosen, who already had a shoulder in front of the last defender. He got the ball under Anthony Laureano, Emerson's freshman keeper who chose many other moments to shine over the next 87 minutes.
It was the same type of combination that got Glen Rock its second goal as senior Dan Hahn got to a ball in the midfield first and one-touched it forward for Matt Zakowski, who timed a run perfectly right down Main Street. Zakowski forced the keeper into a decision and slotted the ball home to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead in the 20th minute. Glen Rock almost made it a three-goal cushion just three minutes later, but Laureano parried a Rosen rip over the bar.
It was late in the first half that Emerson started to get dangerous again and only the steady play of Hayden in the goal kept the Cavos off the board through the first half. With less than two minutes to play before the break, Bartel took a short corner kick and drive the endline before hitting a rip on the skinny angle that Hayden had to get down for. That gave Emerson another corner and that one was sent into the mixer before falling to Dani SanMartin, who put it on a tee for the on-rushing Bryan Buschbacher, whose first-time rip forced another diving save out of Hayden.
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Matt Zakowski's goal in the 20th minute gave Glen Rock a 2-0 lead. |
“We played Emerson in a scrimmage, but they are a completely different team now. They are very good and they put a lot of pressure on us,” said Hayden, a senior. “I just tried to do my job and get to everything I could.”
The first shot that Hayden could not get to came five minutes into the second half and it was Bartel again causing trouble from a wide position. We got down the right side, won the endline and then dropped a pass for Brandon Dos Santos, who hammered it home from close range to make it 2-1.
Glen Rock (6-1-2) got its two-goal lead back in the 57th minute when Rosen got free on the left and cut in to force Laureano into another do-or-die situation. The Emerson keeper came out and got a piece of the original effort, but the rebound skidded right to Zakowski, who finished into the empty net to make it 3-1. But for the next 15 minutes or so, it was all Emerson.
The Cavos go an unlucky no-call in the 59th minute when Robert Blau was knocked over while chasing a loose ball in the box, but they kept at it and scored less than a minute later. Dos Santos lane up the middle was cutoff, but not before he played the ball forward Bartel, who took one diagonal dribble to create space and then hit a cracker into the right side of the net to make it 3-2. It was just two minutes later that Bartel lined up a free kick from 40 yards out on the right and played a dipping serve to the near corner of the 6. Jack Dunican was the first two it and he lunged with the outside of his right foot to plant it in the upper 90 to square the match with 18:49 left in regulation.
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Emerson's Jack Dunican redirected a free kick home to tie the game at 3. |
“I think we felt like we had something to prove. We wanted to show that we are a top team and this game was emotional for us,” said Bartel. “When we went down by two goals we had to find a way back. We had six or seven sophomores out there, a freshman in goal and we kept battling. The younger guys are so talented and that came out today for sure.”
Hayden saved a Bartel rip with a steady two-handed save with 14 minutes to go in regulation, and with five minutes left, it was Glen Rock that had the final chance to avoid the Golden Goal pressure cooker of overtime. Hahn sent in Rosen, who got to the top of the area and hit a bender that Laureano made a brilliant save on. He got up and used his fingertips to push the ball off the bar and then cleared out the rebound.
So it was off to two comparatively uneventful overtimes and then to the penalty kick shootout in the dwindling light. Jake McMahon went first and he hit the right side of the net to put Glen Rock up. When Emerson's first shooter clanged his try off the left post, the momentum had switched for the final time. Hahn, Glen Rock's second shooter, converted his try and Emerson missed wide right with its second attempt. Brendan Geen made it three straight for the Panthers, before Emerson's Matt Nedilsky converted to keep the shootout going, but only briefly. When Rosen was true, Glen Rock could finally breath a sigh of relief in the pile up that happened at the top of the arc.
Rosen scored the game's first goal and its last with about two-and-half hours of good old-fashioned high school soccer in between.
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Jake McMahon made the first PK of the shootout to give Glen Rock the lead for good. |
“It was the first round of the county tournament and we did not want to do all of that hard work to get in and then go out right away on our own field. We couldn't give up with everything that was on the line,” said Rosen. “I was fortunate when I took my PK that we were already up 3-1 and the pressure was pretty much off, but I wanted to be the one to finish it. It wasn't the best PK I ever hit, but a goal is a goal.”
Although its stay in the tournament was brief, Emerson certainly made its mark. And while they entered the game lacking that big game experience, the Cavos got a crash course that will only make them better going forward.
“We learned so much today and there is no substitute for that. You have to play in a game like this to know what it takes to win a game like this,” said Silva, who is in his eighth year as Emerson's head coach. “Hopefully this will pay off for us in the future, especially in the state tournament.”
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