Wednesday,
October 7, 2015
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Ben Sperzel scored the game's lone goal in the 64th minute as Don Bosco Prep edged Old Tappan, 1-0, in a one-off Bergen County Tournament pre-play in game. |
RAMSEY – When originally scheduled, Tuesday night’s game between Don Bosco Prep and Northern Valley/Old Tappan was well positioned as a Big North Conference crossover match designed to get both teams ready for what they hoped would be their Bergen County Tournament openers later in the weekend.
And then things went kablooey.
In the county tournament selection meeting on Sunday night, both Bosco, which was 4-4 at the cutoff, and Old Tappan, which was 5-5-1, were denied entry. Protests were lodged, compromises were reached and since, this game was scheduled anyway…what the heck? Make it a ‘play-in, play-in’ game and get the Bergen County Tournament started two days early.
The great thing about high school sports is that whatever problems are created, however unnecessarily, by the powers that be off the field, they can be soothed on the field by the players themselves and Tuesday night’s game was certainly played not only at county tournament quality but at a level which would have been perfect a couple of rounds later.
“For this to be a play-in game or whatever this is officially, the Round of 16 and the Round of 8 are going to have to be fantastic if this is the level of a play-in game,” said Old Tappan head coach Mark Torrie. “We were at fault because we lost two games [right before the cutoff]. We just couldn’t score. Had we won those this would have been a nice little game to get ready for Sunday, We got a second chance here, it was a good game and there was not much between the sides.”
In fact, the only difference between the two sides, on the scoreboard at least, was a 64th minute goal by Ben Sperzel in the 64th minute that stood up as Bosco advanced into the next play-in round with a 1-0 win under the lights in Ramsey. The Ironmen will now play at Fair Lawn on Friday with a spot in the Round of 16 on the line.
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Old Tappan's Lucas Casamento (right) was a handful all night long for the Don Bosco Prep defense. |
“I am happy for my boys, but I am saddened for a guy like Mark Torrie. Did this look to you like two play-in teams? I’ve seen quarterfinals that couldn’t match the kind of game this was,” said Don Bosco Prep head coach Vincent Sileo. “I’ve never seen my kids for fired up. They feel like there was injustice done to them and they are playing with a special type of motivation.”
There was a little extra edge on the game. It was faced paced from start to finish and what made it more fun was that both teams were playing to win. Torrie even threw three strikers up top for long stretches. There was pressure high up the pitch both ways and, even though the first half was bereft of goals, it was not shy of chances.
Five minutes in Old Tappan’s Jason Ackerman flicked on a free kick that forced Don Bosco Prep keeper William Shim to his right post for a reaction save that led to a counterattack the other way. On the end of that rush, Mike Helgesen got in up the left and whistled one just wide of the far post.
Old Tappan keeper Jake Fiore made two saves in the final 10 minutes of the first half to keep the game scoreless, one off a free kick from 25 yards out by Matthew McGovern and another on a tricky effort by Helgesen. The Bosco striker was running east-west about 30 yards from goal when he took a sneaky rip with the outside of his right foot. The ball had some knuckle and swerve on it and it handcuffed Fiore for a second before he won the scramble to the rebound.
Old Tappan looked like its pace was starting to turn the tide in its favor early in the second half. Bosco picked up two yellow cards on professional fouls committed against Casamento, who continued to apply the pressure until he created the one chance that might have changed the outcome.
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Bosco keeper William Shim, an Old Tappan resident, kept a clean sheet against his hometown team. |
Andrew Squillace, who was serving dangerous balls from the wing all night long, hit Casamento right down the channel and in perfect stride. Casamento ran on, split two defenders and had a good look at goal. Called into action, Shim made one of his two key second half stops in the 1-v-1 situation.
Shim, an Old Tappan resident himself who played on the NV/OT freshman team three years ago, robbed his former teammate of the equalizer by holding his ground and getting low in the 56th minute.
“Old Tappan is a good team, Lucas is aggressive up top and they are my old team so I know them pretty well and it was great to get a win against my home team,” said Shim, whose effectiveness was in the quality not the quantity of his four saves. “It’s been an emotional roller coaster. First we weren’t in counties, then we got the bid and now we are trying to make the most of it.”
Don Bosco also took advantage of one of the few mistakes that Old Tappan made in the back. With just under 17 minutes to play, Helgesen put the pressure on a ball played back to the feet of Fiore, who funneled it out to his right. An extra touch by a defender left the door open for Nick Mesropyan to step through and take possession in deep with open space in front.
Mesropyan found Sperzel in the middle of the field and right near the top of the box and the junior tucked a right-footed shot just under the crossbar for the game’s lone goal.
“My teammate Mes[ropyan] gave me a nice ball at the top of the 18 and I decided to have a hit. I saw a guy on my left, so why not?” said Sperzel. “Old Tappan is a great team, we fought hard and we got one more chance and one more goal in the end.”
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Old Tappan's Chris Lee almost equalized on one of the final touches of the game. |
Shim had one more bit of hard work to do before closing out the clean sheet. On one of the final sequences of the game, Squillace sent a free kick over the pile in the middle. Old Tappan's Chris Lee, making a backside run, took it down and put a shot on goal, but Shim had already closed the distance and made the save in his midsection. A few seconds later, the final whistle blew.
It is the end of the county tournament for Old Tappan, which will now have to sort through the by-laws to see if it can play in the Bergen Cup, the tournament available to teams that did not make the Bergen County Tournament proper. Does a previously scheduled regular season game hastily repackaged as a pre-play-in game count as true participation in the Bergen County Tournament?
That is to be worked out. The future for Don Bosco Prep is more clearly defined. The Ironmen will play on Friday at Fair Lawn, a team that originally thought it was free and clear of a play-in game but now must beat a team that could potentially compete for the title just to move into the main draw on Sunday.
The perceived snub might just have been that extra something that Don Bosco Prep needed to make a deep run.
“You saw it out here today. We were winning 50/50 balls, we were tackling, we did all the right things defensively and I have not seen them play that way before,” said Sileo. “We are a more reserved, technical side that likes to ping the ball around a little bit, but I have never seen the defensive hunger like I did today. A spark was lit under them and I don’t think they are going to look back.”
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