Ramapo keeper Julian Lora saved a PK to help preserve the shutout in a 3-0 victory over Dwight-Englewood in the quarterfinals of the Bergen County Tournament.
FRANKLIN LAKES – These are crazy times in the Jerry Lewis BCCA Soccer Tournament. Heading into Saturday’s quarterfinal round five of the eight teams remaining were from the small school NJIC, perennial power programs like Bergen Catholic and Ramsey were nowhere to be found and a Group 1 school was guaranteed a spot in the Final 4. And then, over the course of four games at Ramapo High School in Franklin Lakes, it got even wackier.
Don Bosco Prep, which barely squeaked into the tournament as the No. 18 seed and which needed an overtime goal on the road just to make it through the play-in round, is now a semifinalist after a 5-1 thumping of No. 10 Rutherford.
Garfield, the reigning Group 3 state champion, was under-seeded coming into the tournament at No. 9, had to win its way through the play-in round and then again on the road in the Round of 16, where it snuck past Old Tappan, but lost All-County attacker Leland Gonzalez to injury. Then the Boilermakers came out and bounced top-seeded Ridgewood, 2-1, on Saturday on a pair goal by junior Julius Mesa, who was not even a part of last season’s postseason heroics.
In the third quarterfinal it was a question of which was the bigger surprise. Was it that Emerson, with one of the lowest enrollments in the county, rode an undefeated record to the No. 5 seed? Or that fellow Group 1 Waldwick was its opponent? The Warriors were seeded 20th and what were the odds that they would make it through a play-in game at Cliffside Park and a Round of 16 match at No. 4 Paramus to even make it to the Round of 8? They were not good,
Well, the Warriors upended Emerson in overtime to set up a No. 20 vs. No. 9 semifinal round against Garfield that will ensure that an NJIC team will be in the championship match. As luck would have it for the “Road” Warriors, that game will be played on the purple turf at Garfield High School.
Zachary Rosenblatt making one of his 10 saves in goal for Dwight-Englewood, which had upset Bergen Catholic to reach the quarterfinal round.
Looking for some stability; for some sign that Bergen County soccer has not been rendered completely unrecognizable? Look no further than Ramapo, the three-time defending champion and No. 3 seed which got a brace from sophomore Jacob Preziosi to see off another NJIC upstart in No. 11 Dwight-Englewood, which “upset” Bergen Catholic, if there is such a thing in this tournament anymore, on Wednesday.
With a 3-0 win, Ramapo assumed its spot in the semifinals where it will take on Bosco in the first game of the Saturday night doubleheader in Garfield.
It took Ramapo the better part of half-an-hour to figure out Dwight-Englewood, which did not press high, but rather invited the Green Raiders to dominate possession with a safe space on their own side of the 50. The Bulldogs, however, were in position to clog things up the closer Ramapo advanced toward the penalty area.
“They played back a bit and they gave us part of the field, but they were organized,” said Ramapo head coach Evan Baumgarten. “They had a good plan and they made it hard for us,”
When Ramapo finally broke through it did so by not allowing Dwight-Englewood to get set up in a restart situation.
“It was a nice quick throw, wide open from Brody Benner, our right back. It was a nice flick from Jordan [Hunt], our center mid. I saw a ball, I took a nice touch and my eyes lit up,” said Preziosi. “Then I went to celebrate in the corner.”
Jake Weis scored the second goal for Ramapo, which will play No. 18 Don Bosco Prep in the semifinals on Saturday.
That goal came with 9:45 left in the first half and another came quickly on its heels. Preziosi had a foot in it as his volley from the edge of the area hit a Bulldog foot on its way past the left post. On the ensuing corner kick, Jake Weis headed home from the back post to give Ramapo the 2-0 lead it carried into halftime.
Preziosi made it 3-0 less than two minutes into the second half, but Dwight-Englewood did not roll over. Applying pressure via the counter attack, the Bulldogs picked up a penalty kick opportunity after a handball in the box, but Ramapo keeper Julian Lora guessed right, dove left and kept the Bulldogs off the board.
“I saw that he immediately stepped back from the ball instead of stepping on an angle, so I just assumed the side,” said Lora, a junior. “This is a pretty high stakes game, but I think that if you play with no fear, with just straight passion and if you play for the name on the jersey I think, at the end of the day, you will come out with a win.”
Ramapo did come away with the win and is now just two away from a fourth straight Bergen County championship. While is seems like an annual foregone conclusion that the Raiders will make a county run, this year is a little different. They were 1-2 heading into a rivalry game against Northern Highlands and a tilt against Bergen Catholic. Negative outcomes in either of those games could have seen the season spiral. Instead, Ramapo won both and 8 of its last 9 to improve to 9-3 on the season. It was the only higher seed to win on Saturday and the highest seed left playing for a county championship.
Why the turnaround?
“They are competing in practice. A lot of teams have played two, three, four more games than us, but we have had more time to practice,” said Baumgarten. “Practice has been high energy, it’s been very competitive and that has carried over into the games.”
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