Monday,
October 12, 2015
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Jorge Salas scored twice for Garfield, which advanced to the quarterfinals of the Bergen County Tournament with a 4-1 win over Pascack Hills on Sunday. |
EMERSON – When Garfield is playing at its best, it is a pretty brand of soccer to watch. The Boilermakers have a flair, a creativity and a feel that is hard to teach. Whether it is Jorge Salas doing ball tricks as he zig-zags down the field or David Herrera standing straight up over the ball before dinking it over a defender and onto a teammate’s foot or the diminutive Oscar Sanchez trying to outrun the other 19 field players in a straight line dash, Garfield plays a different kind of way.
And on Sunday, in the Bergen County Tournament’s Round of 16 against Pascack Hills, Garfield was at its best.
The sixth-seeded Boilermakers scored twice in the first 12-plus minutes of the match and went on to a 4-1 victory that lifts them into the quarterfinals where they will face No. 3 Tenafly next Sunday at Ramsey High School.
“Our goal is to play like this every time we step out [on the pitch]. We have been struggling at times to do that this season,” said Garfield head coach Mark Pieklo. “We were happy just to get through to be able to play this game today. We’ve had a few key injuries and sometimes it has been a little bit of a struggle.”
The struggle dissipated on Sunday when Jorge Salas netted the game’s first goal just less than 10 minutes in and Garfield played from in front thereafter.
“Oscar [Sanchez] was dribbling down the midfield and saw me making a diagonal run,” said Salas, a junior. “He passed it to me and I just finished with my left [foot]. Getting the first one was big.”
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Senior Stephano Girkas scored the goal for Pascack Hills, which fell to 6-4 on the season. |
Herrera, a senior and a four-year starter, has played in the back with the absence of fellow senior Wojciech Piwowarczyk, the Boilermakers’ primary central defender who has been out with a concussion. When Piwowarczyk returns, and it should be sometime this week, Herrera can move back to his natural spot in the middle of the park, but he showed he can still affect the offense from a rearward position.
Less than three minutes after Salas scored, Herrera tucked a penalty kick from 25 yards out under the crossbar to give Garfield (8-1-1) the 2-0 advantage.
But Pascack Hills hung in there. Senior goalkeeper Evan Lazerus made some quality saves and got off his line on numerous occasions to break-up potential trouble before the Cowboys cut the deficit in half. Stephano Gikas chased down a ball on the left side and hit the gas. He beat a defender wide, cut the ball back and with one hard dribble toward the middle, cleared himself some space. Gikas left the keeper helpless with a rip that got Pascack Hills back to within 2-1 with just under nine minutes to play in the first half.
But before the Cowboys could take that momentum into the break, a turnover in the back gave Salas a chance and he capitalized. Salas took one dribble to his left to get the keeper moving and then shot into the lower right hand corner to make it 3-1 at the half.
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Oscar Sanchez's pace on the flanks is an advantage for Garfield, which will play Tenafly in next week's Round of 8. |
“You have to hold your marks and you can’t lose track of them for a second. Give credit to them. We had a few misplays and anytime there was a miss play…bam! They were one it and they were moving,” said Pascack Hills head coach Jim Soltman, whose team fell to 6-4 on the season. “I just want us to get to the point where we are not just happy to get [into the county tournament] and I think that part of the issue today. We want to do more than ‘make it’ especially when your first 13 games are used [to determine seedings] for states, this game affects power points.”
Sanchez was rewarded for his hard work all game long with the game’s final goal. He got in on the left, finished to the right with 13:55 remaining and Garfield is off to next weekend’s quarterfinal round. No matter the result it will be interesting against Tenafly and don’t expect either side to park the bus. A shutout for either side is probably not in the offing.
“I definitely think we have a chance to make the finals with the way the bracket is set up, especially because we are getting healthy now. We have Tenafly next week, they are a good opponent, I expect a good game and we’ll see if we can get a W,” said Herrera, who is enjoying his final run through the county brackets. “As a senior it is a little more emotional. Every game could be the last game. Today could have been the last game, but we won and we have to play the same way next week.”
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