In a Midseason doubleheader, the boys’ JV and Varsity soccer teams saw themselves traveling to New Jersey on October 3rd to face off with the Crusaders of Bergen Catholic. This was a pivotal moment of the season, as both groups of Friars looked to complete the first halves of their seasons on high notes. The Varsity was playing to get back to their winning streak after Chaminade gave them their only loss of the season two weeks prior, and the JV was working to win a third game in four days. In two highly competitive midday battles, both the JV and Varsity teams found themselves on top of their respective matchups.
After a two hour early morning trip from South Huntington to Oradell, NJ, the Friars were anything but unprepared to take on the Crusaders in their own backyard at Jack McGovern field. The first game of the day between the two schools saw the JV teams kick off just past one with the sides locked in a back and forth slugfest during the opening twenty minutes. The only factors keeping the scoreboard silent were both sides’ keepers, highlighted by a stellar save by the Friars’ own Jamison Draddy, whose one handed grab of a bouncing effort from the top of the six yard box kept St. Anthony’s clean sheet alive. This would prove as a turning point in the game, as the Friars would exhibit a fluent offense to close out the half led by incredible ball movement and possession by midfielders, Stephen Galindo and Aristeo Aniceto. These first half efforts would have been shortly rewarded if not for the Crusaders’ far post, which rattled away a long range curling effort from Carlo Maricevic, in the closing moments of the first forty-five.
Coming out of the half, the Friars refused to let up. St. Anthony’s dominant possession led up to a 54th minute goal by Eamon Bevan, assisted by Aristeo Aniceto, off of a corner kick. As the Crusaders pushed for a much-needed equalizer throughout the rest of the half, the Friars would cease to let up with wonderful defensive efforts by Nick Kosciusko, Captains Dean Muratore and Gunnar Anderson, and second half goalkeeper, Danny Vanarsdale, who all contributed to the clean sheet in a 1-0 Friar win to start the afternoon. After the final whistle, the team was relieved and celebrated the victory, clearing the field as the Varsity was set to make it a St. Anthony’s sweep on the day.
This trip was the second occasion of the season in which the Varsity soccer team went out of state to show what they could do. The first being a three-game win streak against La Salle, Barrington, and Bergen’s fierce North Jersey rival in Don Bosco. This time around was no different. The Varsity Friars, right from the opening kickoff, showed no fear in backing the home side into a corner. With key performances early on in the first half by Julian Wicik, John Oualaalou, Jake Friedman and Chris Thorsen (who was moved to striker in the absence of Dominic Algieri), St. Anthony’s were able to keep almost all plays within Bergen’s defensive third throughout the first quarter of the game.
With the momentum they had been gaining, it was only right that the first ten minutes of action would see captain Julian Wicik convert an uncontested tap-in at the far post to see his team lead 1-0. In the next fifteen minutes, the Friars would enjoy a cushion of possession and uncontained combination of chances taken by their offense. Towards the end of the second half, the eyes of the Crusaders snapped open at a very important junction. Bergen attacked at an unseen level in the match, taking all of the right chances they could get from an unworked SA defense, and turned the game on its head with several shots clipping the woodwork. Within the closing minutes of the half, these chances from Bergen culminated in a scramble inside the Friars’ six yard box, and following two strikes into his woodwork, a heroic save was prompted from goalkeeper Irwin Ramirez, but at a cost, a fall cushioned by a blow to his side, saw him rendered as injured for the remainder of the game.
This scenario wouldn’t change a bit as the second half kicked off. The Crusaders stormed back onto the field with a vengeance that carried on through halftime by their momentum. The balance of the affair, for the remainder of the game, saw both sides locked in a back and forth duel until about fifteen minutes into the half, when Bergen would pick up their momentum once more. With unrelenting play on the wings, a dangerous corner kick saw the Crusaders finally be rewarded with a leveler.
It seemed the stakes of the moment would be drilled back into their heads, and their energy would finally pick up. With as good as a press that Bergen was able to put on, subbed-on goalkeeper, Mark Aliscio, pulled off several fantastic efforts as the anchor in countless defensive stops and building plays for the Friars.
Almost instantaneously, following a series of terrific efforts by Aliscio in net, the Friars would put on a master class of the sport down the right side of the field. Through the inspired work of right back Cervini and winger Friedman, they were able to set up several increasingly dangerous balls through the middle of the field, with all of the momentum sliding into their favor. Finally, reaching the 70 minute mark of the game, a bending service from Friedman found the head of Chris Thorsen, who with a wonderfully headed strike, put the Friars back up one. With only a one goal difference, the Friars had an intense on field momentum that was put into jeopardy by several pushes motivated by the home crowd and the scrappy Crusaders.
Luckily for the Friars, fantastic and constant defensive stops were piling in from center backs, Justin Alves and Aidan Heron, allowing more offensive windows to open. In what seemed like an instant, the right side of the field opened once more, and Friedman who had fallen back on defense sent a beautiful ball through to Thorsen, on the Crusaders’ 30 yard line. With pressure from all angles, Thorsen managed to send an absolute thunderbolt dipping into the side of the net.
With under five minutes left, the Friars easily saw themselves through to the final whistle as the team was victorious in their last game for the first half of the year with a sweep of the Crusaders.
These fantastic efforts from both Friar sides saw records improve to 4-1-1 for the JVA, and 9-1 for Varsity, with the second half of the season setting their ambitions for the playoffs into full gear. The JV team has 6 games remaining on their schedule before playoffs and the varsity looks to end their regular season on Oct. 28th as successful as they started. All eyes are now set on the championship game coming November 7th.
Eamon Bevan is a sophomore writer for the Scoreboard at St. Anthony’s High School. He is a member of the JV Soccer team and is involved in several clubs including Franciscan Youth Ministry.
