Wednesday,
September 17, 2014
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Kevin Tremblay in the middle of his 50-plus yard run that set up Mahwah's second goal in a 2-1 win over River Dell on Tuesday afternoon. |
ORADELL – After playing two close games only to come up one goal short in both of them, the Mahwah boys soccer team just needed one break to go its way to get the momentum of its season heading in the right direction. That opportunity came just over 20 minutes into Tuesday afternoon's match at River Dell and when the Thunderbirds took direct advantage of it and took a lead, they were off and running toward their first win of the season.
A high ball played in from the midfield by Marc Gagliadotto was left to fall right at the top of the penalty area. With the game being played on the turf at River Dell High School, the next bounce was a high one and it cleared the traffic that had gathered which included the goal keeper. That left James Perrine, whose hustle on the back side paid off, to score as easy a goal as can be had. He tapped the ball into the open net to give Mahwah the lead. Mahwah scored in much more difficult fashion less than two minutes later and that quick burst of offense was enough for the Thunderbirds to earn the 2-1 victory.
“This was a big game for us and we had to find a way to win. Our first two were extremely close games and we made mistakes to lose them. We lost to Leonia 2-1 when we game up a goal in the first 20 seconds and against Pascack Hills we lost in the last 50 seconds,” said Mahwah head coach Vince Vespe. “Today we did a good job of switching balls and getting wide. We still lost some balls in the middle of the field and that we need to work on, but I told the kids today that we were going to break the game into 20 minute segments and try to win every one of them and I think we did that.”
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Antranik Medina scored the River Dell goal with just under 12 minutes to play in the game. |
About a minute after his team was handed the first goal, senior midfielder Kevin Tremblay legged Mahwah to its second. He took a good route to cutoff a through ball in the back and then charged 50-plus yards with possession the other way. He carried past the midfield stripe, blew by two defenders and then got to the edge of the box before heading across to create space for the shot. Before Tremblay could catch up to his final touch, sophomore Daniel Coates called him off and went for goal himself, rifling one inside the left post to give Mahwah the 2-0 advantage in the 21st minute.
“I got the ball at the edge of our box and I was looking for a quick counter. I saw a lot of open space in front of me, so I took it. Towards the end of the run I took a touch out in front of me and Coates came on and took a rip from the wing. It was a nice shot and a good goal,” said Tremblay, a captain and one of four Mahwah seniors in the starting lineup. “The first goal was a little flukey but I even think we deserved that one because of how well we played in the first 20 minutes and then to follow that up with another one right after to take a 2-0 lead going into halftime was really big for our confidence.”
It took until it was two goal behind for River Dell to get that sense of urgency needed to test the Mahwah net. The Golden Hawks had the last two good scoring opportunities of the first half, but Antranik Medina's header off a corner kick played in by Ilya Leifer went just wide of the post in the 28th minute and Justin Fernandez's rip of opportunity from 40 yards out sent Mahwah keeper Michael Kayal back-pedaling before landing on top of the net just under four minutes from the halftime break.
“I am not really sure what it is, but we have to fix it in a hurry. There is no reason to make some of the mistakes that we did and have been making and we need more effort earlier in games,” said River Dell head coach John Graham. “Hopefully we can get past this and start gelling like we did in the preseason.”
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Daniel Coates, one of five sophomores in Mahwah's starting lineup, scored the T-Birds' second goal. |
River Dell was determined to get back in the game in the second half and had some chances to do it. Fernandez's half-volley with his right foot from the left side pinged off the post in the 58th minute and Sean Van De Weghe and Medina worked a give-and-go that put Medina through for a tester that Jonathan Kruse, who came on in net for Mahwah at the half, neatly punched away.
The Hawks finally got in the board with just under 12 minutes left in regulation and it came through a short corner kick and a secondary service by Medina, who took possession in the corner and hit one hard and low through the six. It took a deflection on its way through, but it counted and River Dell was back to within 2-1.
With River Dell pressing up in search of the equalizer, senior center mid Eric Sirinian helped keep the Mahwah defense organized and behind the ball. The T-Birds did not give up much in the dangerous category in the final 10 minutes and saw out the game to secure the all-important first win of the season. Mahwah starts four seniors, two juniors and five sophomores and freshman Malcom Mashig saw time in the midfield, so confidence and experience are still being built at this early stage of the season.
“It's a great feeling to get that first win. Even though that first goal was not a spectacular goal, once it went in it really helped us put it all together,” said Sirinian. “We are still working on some of our set piece stuff and we have a lot of room to get better as a team. We are a brand new team, not a lot of us have played together and there are separate groups of different ages trying to come together. We are still learning, but it was better today and things started to click.”
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