Christian Ramirez's 58th minute goal stood up (barely) in Garfield 1-0 win over Waldwick that puts the Boilermakers in the Bergen County Tournament final for the first time in program history.
GARFIELD – It was going in, no doubt about. With just about five minutes to go and Waldwick trailing by a goal in a thoroughly entertaining Bergen County Tournament semifinal, the Warriors were heading for a sure equalizer. Isaac Vargas’s rip forced Jakub Piszczatowski into a do-or-die situation and the Garfield keeper did all he could. With firm hands he knocked down the shot, but was at the mercy of the rebound, which fell right to the foot of Julian Ruehlemann, one of Bergen County’s top strikers who was not going flub his lines against a compromised keeper and open goal behind him.
Everyone knew it was going in, even Garfield’s Christian Ramirez, who saw the whole thing develop.
“Our midfield was a little out of place on the rebound and it went right to the kid [Ruehlemann],” said Ramirez. “I had dropped to my knees already because I figured it was a tie game.”
Ruehlemann did his job. He got good leather on his shot, enough that the slight touch that Piszczatowski was able to get on it with his thigh was not enough to change the ball’s direction, angle or velocity all that much. It whistled through the traffic and was on its way.
Enter senior defender Andrej Tutureski, who had no intention of allowing the equalizer to go unchallenged. He never panicked, never ceded his position and calmly bent his knees with his legs together and kept the ball out.
“I saw him on the left and I said, ‘I got this, I got this.’ I knew it was coming and I got to the line and saved it,” said Tutureski, a senior from Macedonia, who pulled off the same kind of miracle in last year’s Group 3 state final. “Remember in the final last year? Same thing. I knew where I had to be.”
Last year’s clearance preserved the second state championship in school history and the first since 2015. Saturday night’s ensured a 1-0 win over a gritty Waldwick side and put Garfield in the Bergen County championship match for the first time. The ninth-seeded Boilermakers will play three-time defending champion Ramapo, a 5-0 winner over Don Bosco Prep, on Saturday night at Indian Hills High School for the trophy.
Waldwick's Julian Ruehlemann was dangerous right down to the final whistle.
Whatever the outcome next weekend, it has been quite a 15 months or so for the Garfield soccer program. That was about the time they started waking up with the sun for summer workouts before the 2023 season with complete buy-in from a diverse group of players that have taken pride in the purple and gold. Throw in the brand new, state of the art athletic facility that is one of North Jersey’s best, good enough to host the Bergen County Final 4, and it’s a good time to have a good time in the City of Champions.
It has all come on the watch of Piotr Sala, who is in his second season as Garfield’s head coach, probably the two best years both on and off the pitch, in the proud boys’ soccer program’s history.
“This is beautiful because, if you remember, two years ago this was a terrible stadium, grass field, not good,” said Sala, standing on the sidelines while the new LCD lights blinked in rhythm to help celebrate the home team’s victory. “We have this field, we another field over there and we have a locker room for the boys so we can always meet before games. It is beautiful and finally because Garfield….Garfield is Garfield.”
And Garfield is just one win away from its first ever Bergen County championship because of Ramirez’s goal a little more than 8 minutes into the second half. After an entertaining, but ultimately fruitless first 40 minutes, Ramirez, the central midfielder who usually sits deep just in front of Garfield’s back line, saw a space that was open for exploration.
“Kristian Ristevski won the ball. It was a 50/50 inside the box, he slide-tackled and he won it and it kind of bounced out like a rebound,” said Ramirez. “I saw an opportunity, I saw there was room for me and I just ripped it. I went bottom left corner because I saw the keeper had moved to the right a little bit. I took the opportunity and I scored.”
On the tournament bracket it said that Garfield was the No. 9 seed, while Waldwick was No. 20. On the field it was quite different. It was high-level soccer from the outset with Waldwick showing it belonged in this setting. The Group 1 Warriors beat No. 4 Paramus in the Round of 16, then unbeaten and No. 5 seed Emerson in the quarterfinals and then nearly went ahead of Garfield with less than three minutes left in the opening half.
Andrej Tutureski saved the potenial equalizer off the line for Garfield, which will play Ramapo for the county title next weekend in Oakland.
Vargas stole a ball on the right sideline, looked up and nearly chipped Piszczatowski from about 25 yards out. Vargas’ crafty floater was heading inside the near post before Piszczatowski used his entire 6-foot-2 frame plus wingspan to tip the ball away just in time to keep the game scoreless into the intermission.
Waldwick’s preference while the game was still scoreless was to look for the counter. It’s not like they were packing the box, but the Warriors were a bit defense first before Ramirez’s goal. When they fell behind with 30 minutes left they throttled up.
Andrew Del Rey forced Piszczatowski into a sprawling save with a volley in the 49th minute, right before Garfield had a potential second goal waved off. Tutureski, up from the back on a corner kick, fought through contact to knock the ball in, but was called for a pushing foul that negated the tally.
Piszczatowski made a stop of a Vargas turn-and-fire from the edge of the area in the 58th minute and then, with six minutes to go, keeper Axel da Silva started a quick transition that continued with an elevated ball up the right for Ruehlemann, whose first touch took the ball down in stride and his second was a crack across the face of goal.
Piszczatowski made that save and, one minute later, he made the original stop in the sequence that ended with Tutureski’s miraculous clearance. It was end to end at the end, but it was Garfield that claimed the spot in the final.
“[Tutureski] is a very reliable player and I am glad he is our captain now after we lost Leland [Gonzalez to a knee injury in the Round of 16]. He has always had my back since the state finals last year and he did it again this year. He is a really amazing defender,” said Piszczatowski, who was especially sharp in the final 15 minutes as Waldwick sold out in search of the tying goal. “It was nerve-wracking, but as a goalkeeper it comes with that kind of responsibility. That is part of the job.”
One of the cool things about this current group of Garfield players is that they all seem to have a grasp of the history that they are making in real time. Heading to the county final for the first time in school history has weight.
That Ramapo, the only team to beat Garfield last year, is the only team left standing in the way, just takes all of it to another level.
“This feels great, amazing, especially on this new field. I could not be more grateful for this school and this community,” said Piszczatowski, a four-year starter in goal. “We, I have never won [against Ramapo] before, so I am really looking forward to the finals.”
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