Monday,
October 6, 2014
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
|
|
Emily Crevani scored two goals on either side of halftime to lead Old Tappan to a 5-0 win over Dwight-Englewood and into the Bergen County Tournament's Round of 16. |
OLD TAPPAN – After dominating possession for the full 80 minutes and scoring three times in a six minute span bridging the first and second halves, the Northern Valley/Old Tappan girls soccer team walked off the field with a well-deserved 5-0 result over Dwight-Englewood. But for a couple of seconds there, on two separate occasions when the ball was in the air in a still scoreless game in the first half, Dwight-Englewood was really threatening to make a game of it.
Six minutes in and completely against the run of play the Bulldogs put together a string of three short passes between Katie Park, Isabella Patino and Taylor Krakower, whose first touch was with her left foot 25 yards from the goal. Krakower had scored 30 goals through the first nine games of the season and No. 31 looked like it was on its way before it hit the crossbar.
Absorbing wave after wave of Old Tappan pressure without cracking through 29 minutes, Krakower nearly made something happen again when she lofted a service on a diagonal to the right edge of the 18-yard box. Playing under a cloudless sky, a defender lost the ball in the sunshine and Patino was right behind, sending a shot of opportunity across the face of goal, but it fluttered just wide to the right.
|
Taylor Krakower, already with 30 goals this season, almost gave D-E an early 1-0 lead. |
“It could have made a difference to score that first goal. We were up against a good team, a better team with good players and a deep bench, but we almost had that first goal and that could have changed the game, a least for a little while,” said Dwight-Englewood head coach Eddie Ballas. “The crossbar. Taylor [Krakower] hit the crossbar with a beautiful shot. It was that close, but once we went down on the scoreboard we went down a little mentally to and it led to what happened the rest of the game.”
What happened for the rest of the game was that junior Emily Crevani got on the end of balls played in by Old Tappan's hard-working midfield and cashed them. Crevani opened her account with just over eight minutes to play in the first half, taking a pass from sophomore Amanda Tripodi and weaving through traffic in the middle of the field. Crevani cut to her left and deposited the first of what would become a four-goal afternoon.
Crevani, the junior striker, has been the target of man-marking all season long and faced the same prospect against Dwight-Englewood. She has improved not only her soccer skills, but also in fighting off the frustration that comes with a lack of open space to run to and through. Crevani had chances early in the game that did not come to fruition, but she stuck with it and finished with a hat-trick-plus-one.
|
Izzy Ramil assisted on Old Tappan's third goal. |
“I was frustrated early in the season, but now I know what the game plan is going to be against me and what it is always going to be. I have to keep my head in the game and know that if there is so much attention on me that other players are going to be open and I need to give-and-go,” said Crevani, who took her goals total up to 11 on the season. “I need to figure out other strategies to get myself open and step up for my team. I know I need to finish even if I am being man-marked. I'm older now, I have been on varsity for three years, so I don't have any excuses.”
Crevani found an alternate route to the goal less than one minute before the half when she intercepted a goal kick, dribbled between three defenders before they could get set and gave the Golden Knights the crucial two-goal cushion going into the intermission.
“It's always hard in the beginning especially coming into a game like this where there are a lot of unknowns, but we played well and we just had to hang in there. I think the most important goal was the one right before the half. There was one minute to go and instead of being up one we were up two with the chance to go in and make some adjustments,” said Old Tappan head coach Tom Quinn. “[Dwight-Englewood] has some really nice players that work well together. They had that little one-two punch in the midfield and hit the crossbar early on. So to go from that to a two goal lead at the half and then to have a nice start to the second half, it was a little bit of a relief.”
|
Freshman sweeper Juliette Thron has stepped into the starting lineup and helped D-E to its 8-1-1 start. |
The nice start to the second half included two more goals by Crevani in the first four-and-a-half minutes. On the first one she got a free header off a corner kick by Izzy Ramil and knocked it home and on the second she made eye contact with Amanda Maccaro on a throw in and then took off for goal. Maccaro, from the left and about 35 yards up the line, threw the ball in over the last defender and Crevani ran on, marched in 1-v-1 and made it 4-0.
The Knights capped the scoring in the 60th minute when Tripodi made a run up the middle, drew the defense and slid the ball wide right to Franceso Mangano, who hit a blast into the upper 90 on the opposite side to make it 5-0.
Old Tappan, the No. 10 seed, advances to play Mahwah in next weekend's Round of 16. The Knights have a good mix of youth and experience with a solid senior class that includes strength down the middle with stopper McKenzie Senick and goalkeeper MaryKatherine Brosnan, Maccaro provides the needed physicality in the midfield, Taylor Parcells is a capable defender. Crevani and Kelsey McLaughlin head the junior class and Tripodi, Ramil and Kelly Walsh are three sophomores that are in their second seasons as varsity starters.
And then there is Caroline O'Sullivan, the freshman who has broken into the starting lineup and played a solid game of disruption and distribution from the sweeper spot on Sunday.
|
Amanda Tripodi had two assists for Old Tappan, which will play Mahwah in the Round of 16. |
“It's been a great experience and I am learning a lot. I am a freshman and the girls we play against are good. I am trying to adjust, but that is why it is so nice to play on this team. They have helped me and I am just trying to contribute the best I can,” said O'Sullivan. “This game was a little different because it was a county game and there is more pressure, but I try not to even play attention to that. I know we are playing Immaculate Heart on Tuesday, and whatever comes next I just go with it.”
The loss was the first of the season for Dwight-Englewood (8-1-1). The Bulldogs were with a key defender, Reagan Contrucci, through injury and Krakower was playing through a lingering thigh injury, but Ballas made no excuses and is ready to move on with the league title race and potential a deep run in the state tournament.
“We are a young team, but we have some pieces. My sweeper Juliette [Thron] is a freshman that plays on a high level club team. She has been a plus for us and [Isa]bella Patino is also a freshman. She is very good, very technical,” said Ballas. “Overall, we gave it a good try today. Now we'll go get ready for the states and try to win a league title. We are fighting with New Milford and Lyndhurst for it and it is going to go right down to the end.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS GAME. TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT
OF THIS STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com. |