Wednesday, November 5, 2008

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Trish Berkanish assisted on River Dell's first goal as the Golden Hawks reached the North 1, Group 2 state sectional quarterfinals with a 3-0 win over Pompton Lakes on Tuesday.

ORADELL -- Instead of the label of favorite that it has carried into the state tournament the last couple of seasons, the River Dell girls soccer team is now one of the pack in a balanced bracket, the No. 5 seed in the North 1, Group 2 state section that could just as easily see a low seed from the NBIL go on a run to the title or a high seed from the BCSL hold serve and win. After its 3-0 victory over No. 12 Pompton Lakes on Tuesday, the one thing that is for certain is that River Dell is still in the mix.

“Like [New York Giants head coach] Tom Coughlin says to his team every day, ’They still don’t respect us.’ As a coach you need that. You get a little nugget and you go,” said River Dell head coach Steve Grenz. “Last year [Pascack] Hills came out of the 11th position and when I was with the boys we came out of the 10th position one time to win a sectional. I say to these girls everyday after practice that we can beat everybody in this group, but everybody in this group can beat us, so we have to come every game.”

Steph DePasquale making one of her seven saves for Pompton Lakes.

His team obviously got the message as it put the pressure on early and took the lead less than seven minutes in. A ball played in from the midfield took a high bounce inside the penalty area and River Dell’s Trish Berkanish was able to keep it alive. Her second touch with her head put the ball toward the right post where Jill McGovern was making a charge to get involved.

As Pompton Lakes goalkeeper Steph DePasquale was moving to her left and following the path of the ball, McGovern slid one back inside the far post for the game’s first goal. Playing with the lead, River Dell never relented from its pressure and forced Pompton Lakes into the uncomfortable position of playing from behind on a wide field with an artificial surface that allowed River Dell to exploit its speed and ability to transition quickly from the midfield to the attack.

River Dell had some quality chances to extend the lead. In the 13th minute, Ariane Ackerman hit a hard roller from the corner that skipped its way to DePasquale, who went low to keep it out of the net and the resulting rebound was cleared out by Simone Greco. With 14 minutes left in the first half, McGovern got in deep and got off a quick shot that forced DePasquale to make a bang-bang save, the best of her seven stops.

Jill McGovern's goal in the seventh minute gave River Dell the lead for good.

Pompton Lakes was just over five minutes away from getting to halftime with just the one-goal deficit, but River Dell did not let that happen. Anna Rothschild’s corner kick hooked into the penalty area shin high and Laura Jerlinski found just enough space to stuff it home between the near post and a diving DePasquale.

It was a tough position to be in for an underdog, but Pompton Lakes head coach Ron Bivona was happy with his team’s effort, if not the 2-0 halftime deficit.

“We knew it was going to be difficult, with the make up of our team being so young, that we really weren’t built for a playoff run in Group 2, but those are the cards that were dealt and I thought that our kids handled it well,” said Pompton Lakes head coach Ron Bivona, who started just two seniors on Tuesday. “I’ve seen teams implode when they go down 2-0 in a state game and I take great pride in the fact that they stayed together. We they worked hard and they did well; River Dell just proved that they had an answer for it, so the credit goes there.”

Bailey Ott and Pompton finished the season with a 9-7-1 record.

River Dell added its final goal in the 57th minute when Berkanish sent in Ackerman, who had a step on a defender as she pushed into the opposite third and forced DePasquale into a tough decision. When DePasquale shoes to charge, Ackerman slid the ball inside the left post to cap the scoring.

“We’ve had problems this year with scoring first, so it was important for us to get the lead and once we did that made it easier for us to really get started and score the next two,” said Ackerman. “Like our coach says, on a good day we can beat any team and on a bad day we can lose to anybody, so today was a good day and we are going to try very hard to make it to the end.”

The end for River Dell last year came in the section final when it was upset in penalty kicks by Pascack Hills, the No. 11 seed, who won the first state championship in its program’s history while leaving River Dell with that what-if feeling.

As fate would have it, there is a rematch coming on Friday in Oradell, this time two rounds earlier as Pascack Hills, the No. 13 seed this year, upset No. 4 Hawthorne yesterday.

Ariane Ackerman and River Dell have a rematch with Pascack Hills coming up next.

“At the beginning of the season we tied them and that gives us even more motivation to finally beat them,” said Ackerman. “We know they are a good team after what happened last year and it’s going to be another tough game.”

River Dell improved to 14-4 with the win, while Pompton Lakes’ season came to an end with a 9-7-1 record, not bad for a team with a host of young players and making the jump from Group 1 to Group 2.

“We graduated a good class last year and we had two other studs move to Florida so we knew this was going to be a little bit of a rebuilding year,” said Bivona. “It told our kids that they are just good as teams that we have had that were 14-5, but without the friendly schedule. I don’t think that 9-7 is a good indicator for them. It is a good result at the end of the day but they are just as good as teams that we have had that went on to do great things.”

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