Tuesday,
November 5, 2013
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Freshman Amanda Tripodi scored with just three minutes to play in the second overtime to give Old Tappan a 1-0 win over Paramus in the first round of the North 1, Group 3 state playoffs. |
OLD TAPPAN – It can be tedious, it is no-doubt tiring and can get frustrating, but chasing the hopeless ball is part of the job description for a striker on the soccer pitch. Time after time in a game played just about exclusively in the middle of the field, Old Tappan sophomore forward Emily Crevani made fruitless runs after long balls and was cutoff repeatedly in her never ending quest to find some open space with the ball on her foot. She had nothing but a good sweat to show for her efforts for the first 95 minutes of a scoreless battle against Paramus in the opening round of the North 1, Group 3 state sectional tournament on Monday afternoon.
All Crevani could was keep on running with the belief that at some point, she would find a crack in the Paramus defense that man-marked her all day and ran another defender at her every time the ball was near.
“It's our job to get a goal and to not give up until we do. It's very frustrating, but you just have to keep going,” said Crevani. “It was so even throughout the game and the overtimes, we just had to find away to get a couple of chances.”
Eventually, Crevani's persistence paid off in the second overtime.
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Nicole DiPasquale made two saves in the second overtime that almost got Paramus into penalty kicks. |
On yet another chase situation, Crevani kept her motor running as she put the pressure on a defender who was in possession, but moving toward her own goal looking for a pass back or a way to turn the ball inside. Crevani cutoff the outside route by closing in on the defender's shoulder then changed direction and got back inside to take over possession. Crevani dribbled through two defenders to force a touch save by Paramus keeper Nicole DiPasquale, but the rebound dropped right in the path of freshman Amanda Tripodi, who used the inside of her left foot to guide the game's lone goal into the empty net.
There was very little offense to go around, but that one bit of hustle added to one calm finish just 3:03 before penalty kicks would have come into play gave fifth-seeded Old Tappan a 1-0 victory and a spot in the North 1, Group 3 state sectional quarterfinals where it will get a rematch with No. 4 River Dell, the team that knocked the Golden Knights out of the Bergen County Tournament.
“We were all really frustrated going into the second overtime and we all just wanted to get the goal and get the win. We didn't have many chances before that, so we had to score when we finally got the chance,” said Tripodi, whose goal was the 10th of her freshman campaign. “That goal was all Emily. She dribbled through and never stopped fighting. She kicked the ball and I was just standing there for the rebound and when it went in it was an amazing feeling.”
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Sophomore Emily Crevani did the hard work that led to Old Tappan's game-winning goal. |
Two minutes before the game-winner, Crevani had one other chance in the second overtime when she took down a long ball on the short hop and took too dribbles to her right before getting off Old Tappan's first real clean shot on net. DiPasquale made a quality save on that one and really, the rest of the game was all about the solid defense played by both sides. Most of the first 95 minutes were played in the middle third with the goalies, DiPasquale and Old Tappan's Maya Levenshus, relegated to scooping overly-weighted through balls and picking off probing crosses.
That speaks to how well the back lines played for both teams. Peyton Sardanis and Nikole Rizzo handled the outside edges of the Knights defense while sweeper McKenzie Senick kept the middle of the field clean. If there was a scoring chance in the first half it came from Paramus when Keri Ferrara sent a dangerous diagonal ball toward the back post, but it was one stride too many for Emily Colasante, who was closing fast.
With just less than 14 minutes to play in regulation, Paramus had a real chance when Kelsey Settecasi got in on the left and lined a cross to the 6 where Senick and Levenshus represented Old Tappan in a collision with Francesca DePalo who represented the Spartans. The result was a ball that bounced back to Katie Weiss, whose shot from 20 yards sailed high of the crossbar.
It seemed like overtime was always in the cards and when it arrived, Old Tappan had the best chance of the opening session when Crevani drew a foul, Dana Li took a free kick and Izzy Ramil chased it, but DiPasquale got there first. Then it was on to the second overtime where Old Tappan's pressure finally paid off.
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Kelsey Settecasi set up two of Paramus' best scoring opportunities. |
Paramus (10-9-2) was playing without Victoria Poplaski, a midfielder and a senior captain, for the first time this season when she was lost to a knee injury and the Spartans lost the regular season matchup to Old Tappan by a 4-1 score, but was still a formidable opponent that hung around through 97 minutes of give-and-take soccer.
“After Nicole [DiPasquale] made that first save in Crevani with about six minutes left [in the second overtime], I thought it was looking good for us to maybe get to PKs and be happy with whatever happened there,” said Paramus head coach Glenn Haug. “Hats off to their girls, they scored with three minutes left, but we can walk off the field proud of the way we played. We had two freshmen up with us today, we'll have a whole bunch of juniors that will come back as seniors and we can already look forward to next year.”
For Old Tappan, it was survive and advance in one tough tournament game that will lead to another in the quarterfinals against River Dell.
“It could have gone either way. This was a tough one and we did not want to go into penalty kicks because anything can happen there and Paramus has a good keeper. It is usually very even when we play Paramus regardless of seedings and regardless of home or away,” said Old Tappan head coach Tom Quinn. “It's one at a time and we know that River Dell is a good squad with a very good forward [Rachel Sorkenn]. We played them in the counties, it was a 2-1 game and we know what to expect.
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