Andrew Campos assisted on the game's lone goal as No. 9 Garfield advanced to the Bergen County Tournament quarterfinals with a 1-0 win over No. 8 Old Tappan.

OLD TAPPAN – Garfield’s run the Group 3 state championship last season really hit its stride on the turf behind Northern Valley/Old Tappan High School. Then, as the No. 5 seed, the Boilermakers posted a 3-0 victory to win its first state sectional championship in eight years and then rode the momentum straight through to two more wins that culminated in a victory over defending champion Robbinsville in the state final.

If Garfield is going to make similar memories in this year’s Bergen County Tournament then it will have begun in its favorite neighborhood. Probably under-seeded again, the Boilermakers are the No. 9 seed and, with a goal midway through the second half, eliminated No. 8 Old Tappan, 1-0, in the Round of 16 on Wednesday night.

A lot of Garfield’s starters are back from last season, including its entire defense, but junior Julius Mesa was not. He introduced himself to high stakes high school knock-out soccer with the game’s lone goal when he turned in a rolling ball from Andrew Campos.

“It felt amazing. It was a very important goal and the whole team was really working for it,” said Mesa, who got on the varsity field a few times as a freshman two years ago before missing last season. “I opened up, [Campos] passed me the ball, I took a touch left and finished with my right into the bottom left. I saw the keeper a little bit to the right so I went left and just finished it.”

Mesa is Garfield’s leading goal-scorer and his emergence has been a much-needed development. The Boilermakers lost Eric Zawada, Brenden Baeza and Mateusz Domurat, key pieces to their attacking core,  to graduation and Krystian Nitek left high school soccer for an academy. Then, early in the second half, Garfield lost Leland Gonzalez, an all county selection last year and one of Bergen County’s fastest players on the flank, to a knee injury. He went down in the 41st minute and did not return, which may complicate the game plan for Saturday’s matchup against top-seeded Ridgewood in the county quarterfinals.

AJ Aiello made 11 saves in a solid night in goal for Old Tappan.

“We actually don’t care about the seeds. We enjoy playing the games and then preparing for the next one. Next game is Ridgewood, we will prepare and we hope to have Leland there,” said Garfield head coach Piotr Sala. “He is a strong boy and I hope he will be good.”

Gonzalez was a factor in the first half as he tested the defense wide and played balls in. Garfield had a wide advantage in possession and earned plenty of restarts, which become dangerous when senior defenders Martin Czovek and Andrej Tutereski come up from back and make themselves big targets on corners. The Boliermakers’ height advantage in the box presented problems, but Old Tappan keeper AJ Aiello was up to the challenge. He picked off as many crosses as he could, stayed home when necessary and then threw the ball out to the wings to start the counter, a strength of the Golden Knights.

Aiello made 12 saves in the game and a few tough ones in the first half, including two in one sequence in the 29th minute when he kept his body behind a knuckling attempt at his near post by Mesa and then took down Mesa’s header off the ensuing corner kick.

It was scoreless at the break, Gonzalez went down shortly after and Old Tappan had a chance to seize the momentum, but Mesa’s goal tipped the scale in Garfield’s favor for good.

“It was interesting to see how we would get on against their height. They pressed the ball well, they make difficult and we’d give the ball away quite a bit, but in the second 20 [minutes] of the first half we were able to get a little more time on the ball,” said Old Tappan head coach Mark Torrie. “Their goal came when we were attacking and opening up, then we gave the ball away bad at the edge of their third and they went bang, bang, bang, goal and that was it really.”

Garfield senior Leland Gonzalez was effective on the flanks before leaving with an injury early in the second half.

Old Tappan’s best chance to equalize came on a near miss by Aidan Mulligan, who hit a curler from distance that just finished high of the mark of the upper 90 of Jakub Piszczatowski’s goal. The Knights (8-3) put out a representative effort before bowing out and now they jump right back into the league title race where they need just one win in their final two games to clinch solo first.

Garfield moves to 11-3 heading into the Ridgewood match, which will be the second game of the quarterfinal quadruple header on Saturday at Ramapo High School.

“Sadly, our teammate got injured and we are thinking about him, but it is a really good feeling to beat a really good side like Old Tappan. They challenge really hard, but I feel like we deserved to win this game,” said senior Christian Ramirez, who has thrived in his expanded role in the midfield this season. “Now we can focus on Ridgewood and we are going to give it our all. This is my senior year, so it is a last chance to win counties because we didn’t do it last year.”

FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS EVENT PLEASE CLICK HERE. TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS STORY PLEASE VISIT 4-FeetGrafix.com.