Tuesday,
November 11, 2014
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Musa Gega scored the equalizer and set up the penalty kick in overtime that gave Wayne Hills a 2-1 win over Old Tappan in the North 1, Group 3 state sectional semifinals on Monday. |
WAYNE – Ever see one of the special reports on television about how different participants in a stressful situation see the event almost in complete opposites? Different people trying to identify the color of a car that took off after an accident or describe the suspect at a crime scene often time come up with very different answers. Another example was the way the two sides, both full of adrenaline and nervous energy, described the play that decided Monday's North 1, Group 3 state sectional semifinal.
First to set up the play: Northern Valley/Old Tappan had possession deep in its own territory near the left touch line. When Wayne Hills came up to pressure, the ball was played back toward the middle of the field and into the Knights' penalty box where a defender was faced with the dilemma of either trying to volley a waist-high ball out or chesting it down before clearing it with his second touch. He chose option No. 2.
Wayne Hills' Musa Gega and another Old Tappan defender saw what was happening and headed toward the loose ball. It was Gega who got there first and was or was not run through from behind, depending on who was asked.
“I didn't see it too well. I did see their boy [Musa] twisted and go down hard, but I don't think we touched him too much,” said Old Tappan head coach Mark Torrie. “Our boy said he didn't touch him at all.”
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Louis Ascolese's goal 19 minutes in gave Old Tappan a 1-0 lead. |
Gega had a different take.
“The kid came from behind me and took both my legs out,” said Gega. “That was it, definitely a penalty kick.”
But no matter what was said in the witness box, there was only one opinion that counted and that was that of the referee, who blew his whistle and signaled to the penalty spot. It was from there that Marcello Menucci put his right-footed roller into the lower left hand corner of the net to give Wayne Hills a 2-1 victory and a spot in Thursday's state sectional final where it will face Tenafly, which upset top-seeded and defending champion Northern Highlands in a penalty kick shootout.
If the tournament seedings were anything to go by, both team were surprise participants in the semifinals, but sixth-seeded Wayne Hills earned its way in with an upset of Bergen County champion Ramapo in a quarterfinal penalty kick shootout and seventh-seeded Old Tappan knocked out a red-hot River Dell team which had taken out No. 2 West Essex in the opening round. So neither team was trying to protect anything when they took to the pitch and it was back-and-forth the whole way and end-to-end for long stretches.
It was one such give-and-take that produced the game's first goal. Eighteen minutes in, Wayne Hills' Wally Roma made his way up the right and sent a cross rolling across the carpet for Adrian Sela, who crushed his first touch right on target, but Old Tappan keeper Jake Fiore was well positioned to make the save and he started the rush the other way. When the ball got to the other end, Zachary Senick played a short through ball from a tight space in the middle of the field to set up Louis Ascolese, who sneaked into the area and finished to make it 1-0 Old Tappan (13-7-1) in the 19th minute.
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Grant Kelly made a couple of key second half saves to buy Wayne Hills the time to win the game. |
Both teams had goals disallowed – headers by Senick in the 30th minute and by Wayne Hills' Justin Charkowski in the 33rd – by offside calls and it was still 1-0 early in the second half when Old Tappan senior Tyler Walsh nearly doubled the Knights' lead. He played a nifty 1-2 with Senick to get to within 20 yards before giving it a go. Wayne Hills keeper Grant Kelly, one of North Jersey's best, dove low and to his right to make the initial save and then scrambled back in time to smother the rebound at his same right post.
Three minutes later, the Patriots found the equalizer as Wally Roma sent in a lofted cross from the right and it was pounded home on the doorstep by Gega seven minutes into the second half.
“The ball came in and kind of deflected off the goalie,” said Gega. “I just stuck my foot in there and it went in.”
Each keeper made one save of note in the final 12 minutes of regulation and Fiore got up to the crossbar to take down a Charkowski header off a Justin Diglio corner kick and Kelly was up to the task of denying Walsh again in the 75th minute. Walsh, the senior midfielder, took possession of a loose ball about 35 yards from his own goal and set off an a power run right up the spine. He sliced through with pace, got to the top of the arc and got his toe down on a skidder that was heading for the inside of the left post.
Kelly made the save look surprisingly easy as he got his body behind it and his palms up, pushing away the last good look for either side in regulation.
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Senior Tyler Walsh made a 60-yard run and nearly gave Old Tappan the second goal that proved elusive. |
“It would definitely be easier for me if we were a high-scoring team that could get a couple of early goals and we could drop back and play defense, but that is part of the challenge for us. We don't score a lot of goals and we have to find different ways to win games,” said Kelly. “We play a lot of close games. One goal usually makes the difference either way and that keeps me on the edge and on my toes.”
Three minutes into overtime and Gega was on his back being attended to by the Wayne Hills training staff, the ref''s whistle having already been blown to signify the upcoming penalty kick that Menucci would hit to send Wayne Hills into the section final for the second straight year.
“I knew that if I missed we could lose in the semifinals and I am a senior, I want to get to the final and win it and I knew that I had to make that PK,” said Menucci, who gave Fiore no chance by burying the ball in the side net. “ We want to end our senior year with a state championship, but we had to win this one first.”
The Patriots (10-5-5) did and they will be on the road for the section final for the second straight year. Last season Wayne Hills lost in overtime at Northern Highlands and they hope to change that this time around. This will be the seventh trip to the final for Nelson Graham, who is in his 33rd season as the Patriots' head coach, and still looking for his first section title.
“All of these close games have aged me, that is for sure,” said the soft-spoken Graham. “To win games like this you have to be good, but you also have to have some luck on your side and hopefully we can get lucky at least one more time.”
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