Waldwick keeper Axel da Silva pulling in the last loose ball of the Warriors wild 2-1 win over Indian Hills in the North 1, Group 1 state sectional semifinals on Tuesday.
WALDWICK -- At the professional level of soccer end of game situations are a bit more fluid. Take the English Premier league, for example When the clock hits 90 minutes it is just a suggestion. The referee takes over, basically telling players to, ‘Keep going until I say stop.’
In high school it is different. The scoreboard clock is official, so everyone knows exactly how much time is left. It raises the urgency at the end of close games and it ramps up even further when that close game comes in the latter stages of the state tournament.
The last 25 seconds of Waldwick’s 2-1 win over Indian Hills on Tuesday night in the North 1, Group 1 state sectional semifinals were nuts.
Racing to set the ball down to take a last ditch corner kick, Indian Hills’ Ashton Kent sent in an outswinger that Waldwick keeper Axel da Silva took down in traffic. The referee, however, called for the kick to be retaken and Kant had an extra second or two to line up his second try.
He put it on a platter. Luke Burgess got to it and his header was on frame, as in it hit the crossbar, kicked right back into play and set off a mad scramble for the rebound.
“The ball was loose, I saw a chance to go get it and I put everything into getting there,” said da Silva, the standout senior keeper who finished with six saves. “There was not a lot of time left, 15 seconds, 10 seconds I don’t even know, but I knew what was on the line and I had to go and grab it.”
When da Silva pounced on the ball and turtled up with it in his possession, he finally closed out the victory that sends Waldwick into a section final for the eighth straight year. The Warriors, the No. 2 seed, will play top-seeded Emerson on Friday for the trophy.
Hayden Rogers' goal in the 11th minute gave Indian Hills the lead.
“We knew that [Indian Hills] was going to be physical, we knew that they were going to give it their all and, credit to them, they hit that really good shot to take the lead,” said Waldwick senior striker Julian Ruehlemann. “They made it a super tough game and it felt like a rivalry because of the connections.”
The connection is that Indian Hills head coach Chris Mayer was a standout player for Jon Nochese, who is in his 27th season as Waldwick’s head coach. The really good shot was the one taken by Hayden Rogers 11 minutes into the first half. It takes a lot to beat a keeper of da Silva’s quality from distance, so that speaks to the rip that Rogers deposited into the upper 90 from 20-plus yards out to give the Braves, the No. 6 seed, the 1-0 lead.
Waldwick had a few almosts over the back half of the first half as Ruehlemann hit the crossbar after being played through by Connor Kasperowicz and Indian Hills keeper LJ Renshaw made two saves on one sequence to turn away both Isaac Vargas and Ruehlemann to keep the Braves in front at the intermission.
Soon after the action resumed, however, the Warriors got even. Just over five minutes into the second half senior Noah Ysern took a pass from Ruehlemann and made no mistake.
“I looked up and JJ [Ruehlemann] had the ball around the top of the 18 and I was on the left,” said Ysern, a senior. “We locked eyes for a second and he slid me in. I got in with room and I just went bottom right.”
Getting back even took the edge off and Waldwick kept at it. The Warriors were starting to build up their possession advantage by moving the ball quickly. Vargas was a force in the middle of the park and Ruehlemann an attention grabber, the focus of Indian Hills’ defense.
Julian Ruehlemann assisted on the first goal and scored the second for Waldwick, which will play Emerson in the section final on Friday.
He was the facilitator on Waldwick’s equalizer and he was the goal-scorer of what turned into the game-winner. In the 59th minute Ruehlemann worked a 1-2 with Vargas, was ruled onside as he emerged on the back side of the through ball, touched the ball past the on-rushing keeper and then tapped into the open net to make it 2-1 with 21:31 left in regulation.
“Isaac was drawing a crowd and I had a guy right beside me, but he picked his head up to look for a through ball and I made that run,” said Ruehlemann, who will play at Williams College next season. “He played it right through, the goalie came out, I took a touch and put it in the back of the net.”
There were plenty of nervous moments down the stretch as Waldwick tried to close it out not even counting the final frantic seconds. Steve VanDyke got up to get his head on a Ben Piotrowski throw, which forced da Silva into tough save with 14 minutes left and with six minutes to go da Silva kept out a good look from Dylan Biernacki.
Indian Hills threw everything it had at the Warriors, but came up a goal short in what can only be considered another successful season for the underdog of the FLOW sending district. The Braves reached the semifinals in North 1, Group 2 last season and the same round in North 1, Group 1 this year. In the shadow of 4-time defending champion and Group 3 state power Ramapo, which also drafts from the same talent pool, Indian Hills is holding its own.
“When people think about the FLOW district for soccer maybe Ramapo is the first choice, but every day we come out here we are trying to change the perception and let people know that this a place where you can play in the moments, where you can play in big games, where you can get major awards both individually and as a team,” said Mayer, whose team finished the season at 13-7-1. “Hopefully this is just another step closer to getting over the hump. Two semifinals in a row and it hurts, to be honest.”
It will be an all NJIC-Patriot Division final as Waldwick (18-5-1) and Emerson get ready to meet for a fourth time this season. The league rivals split the regular season series and Waldwick won when they met in the quarterfinals of the Bergen County Tournament. Waldwick last won a section title in 2022.
Nochese is happy to be moving on, but that was mixed with some other feelings as well.
“This is something that I really never way to happen, to coach against [Mayer] one of my favorite players of all time. I feel terrible for him because he is just an amazing person, he is one of the best players I have ever had and I feel for him right now. I wasn’t ready for that emotion,” said Nochese. “But I feel good for my boys. They were down, they dug deep and they came through.”
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