Haledon shocks early, but the Scots prevail
Week XIII of the NJSL NJ Division featured a highly entertaining contest between mighty Scots of Kearny and Haledon. The visitors took a surprising two-goal lead early in the game, but the Scots proved to be too tough of a competition and scored six unanswered goals on a way to their fifth straight victory.
First game of the Spring 2011 for both teams was played at Kearny's Gunnel Oval Sport Complex. Despite playing on the road, rough pitch and cold weather Haledon team came out ready for the 1st place Scots, determined to avenge the first leg routing (0:4) at home back in September. After just a couple of minutes into the game Jake Witek found himself alone in front of the home team's goal, but his strike met with a lucky save from the Scots' goalie. Shortly after that the home team's goalie had to pull yet another save denying Haledon's leading scorer Tomek Moczerniuk, who - despite facing a tough angle - tried to rip one from a couple of yards away.
Missed chances did not make Haledon falter. Au contraire, they applied even more pressure on Scots' defence and it finally paid off. Fintan Ryan stripped the ball away from a home team's sweeper and quickly passed it to Witek, who redeemed himself for the early miss and found the net after some in-front-of-the-goal commotion and a nice lob. About halfway into the first half Haledon struck again. The goal came after some brilliant, Barca-like passing between Doug Shelley and Mike Metey and a one-time, close-range finish by Moczerniuk. It was his 9th goal of the season, but he was not to score again in this game, due to a back injury he suffered shortly after his goal. Lumbar pain sidelined him for the remainder of the game and from that moment on the visitors started to lose their confidence.
It was not the only thing they lost, for soon their surprising lead began to diminish. Scots took advantage of a Haledon's goalie blunder and came within one goal with an empty net strike. Haledon tried to answer, but a brilliant 3-on-1 chance was squandered away by Witek's pass that never reached any of Patrick Flores' legs. That turned out to be a pivotal moment of the game, because on the ensuing counterattack the Scots tied the game up with a second inside-the-box strike.
The second half began with another unfortunate event for Haledon. Chris Huebner, who came in to replace a shaky Haledon's goalie at halftime, punted the ball high against the wind, but it failed to travel for more than 30 yards. The ball went straight to one of the Scots' center midfielders, who kicked it right back towards the goal. It went over Huebner's head and outstretched hands and the Scots took over the lead that they never relinquished.
Haledon tried to answer, but Scots' crafty midfield play in combination with speed of their forwards resulted in 3 more goals scored in a short succession. First one came as a result of a close-range strike and the remaining two were soft lobs scored from within the box. With the score 6:2 in favor of the home team the game started to resemble a friendly. Haledon never gave up and created a few, quality chances in the waning minutes, but Mete's goal was disallowed and the rest of opportunities were either saved or missed the net.
Heavy favorites to win the NJ Division Scots prevailed despite the early shock and remained undefeated and moved past Mt. Olive United to take the first place in the standings with one game in hand. Haledon is yet to win a road game this season and slipped down to a 6th spot. Next week they will travel again to Nutley, where they try to break the winless streak against the 3rd place Krank team, which they beat... 6:2 last fall.
North Jersey Soccer League, over 30 NJ Div:
Week XIII:
20 March 2011
Kearny, Gunnel's Oval
Kearny Scots o-30 - Haledon o-30 6:2 (2:2)
0:1 - Jake Witek (3), 0:2 - Tomek Moczerniuk (9)
Haledon: Austria - Mike Rehberger, Carlos Estrella, Roderick Hausser, Doug Bergesen - Fintan Ryan, Tomek Moczerniuk, Doug Shelley, John Mazzei - Jake Witek, Mike Metey
Subs: Chris Huebner, Jerry Kurlandski, Omar Arango, Paweł Bajon, Patrick Flores, Vinny's Client
Coach: Vincenzo Stampone
Other Week XIII scores:
AC Rosso - Livingston United 3:3
Nutley Krank - AC Montgomery 3:2
Standings:
First game of the Spring 2011 for both teams was played at Kearny's Gunnel Oval Sport Complex. Despite playing on the road, rough pitch and cold weather Haledon team came out ready for the 1st place Scots, determined to avenge the first leg routing (0:4) at home back in September. After just a couple of minutes into the game Jake Witek found himself alone in front of the home team's goal, but his strike met with a lucky save from the Scots' goalie. Shortly after that the home team's goalie had to pull yet another save denying Haledon's leading scorer Tomek Moczerniuk, who - despite facing a tough angle - tried to rip one from a couple of yards away.
Missed chances did not make Haledon falter. Au contraire, they applied even more pressure on Scots' defence and it finally paid off. Fintan Ryan stripped the ball away from a home team's sweeper and quickly passed it to Witek, who redeemed himself for the early miss and found the net after some in-front-of-the-goal commotion and a nice lob. About halfway into the first half Haledon struck again. The goal came after some brilliant, Barca-like passing between Doug Shelley and Mike Metey and a one-time, close-range finish by Moczerniuk. It was his 9th goal of the season, but he was not to score again in this game, due to a back injury he suffered shortly after his goal. Lumbar pain sidelined him for the remainder of the game and from that moment on the visitors started to lose their confidence.
It was not the only thing they lost, for soon their surprising lead began to diminish. Scots took advantage of a Haledon's goalie blunder and came within one goal with an empty net strike. Haledon tried to answer, but a brilliant 3-on-1 chance was squandered away by Witek's pass that never reached any of Patrick Flores' legs. That turned out to be a pivotal moment of the game, because on the ensuing counterattack the Scots tied the game up with a second inside-the-box strike.
The second half began with another unfortunate event for Haledon. Chris Huebner, who came in to replace a shaky Haledon's goalie at halftime, punted the ball high against the wind, but it failed to travel for more than 30 yards. The ball went straight to one of the Scots' center midfielders, who kicked it right back towards the goal. It went over Huebner's head and outstretched hands and the Scots took over the lead that they never relinquished.
Haledon tried to answer, but Scots' crafty midfield play in combination with speed of their forwards resulted in 3 more goals scored in a short succession. First one came as a result of a close-range strike and the remaining two were soft lobs scored from within the box. With the score 6:2 in favor of the home team the game started to resemble a friendly. Haledon never gave up and created a few, quality chances in the waning minutes, but Mete's goal was disallowed and the rest of opportunities were either saved or missed the net.
Heavy favorites to win the NJ Division Scots prevailed despite the early shock and remained undefeated and moved past Mt. Olive United to take the first place in the standings with one game in hand. Haledon is yet to win a road game this season and slipped down to a 6th spot. Next week they will travel again to Nutley, where they try to break the winless streak against the 3rd place Krank team, which they beat... 6:2 last fall.
North Jersey Soccer League, over 30 NJ Div:
Week XIII:
20 March 2011
Kearny, Gunnel's Oval
Kearny Scots o-30 - Haledon o-30 6:2 (2:2)
0:1 - Jake Witek (3), 0:2 - Tomek Moczerniuk (9)
Haledon: Austria - Mike Rehberger, Carlos Estrella, Roderick Hausser, Doug Bergesen - Fintan Ryan, Tomek Moczerniuk, Doug Shelley, John Mazzei - Jake Witek, Mike Metey
Subs: Chris Huebner, Jerry Kurlandski, Omar Arango, Paweł Bajon, Patrick Flores, Vinny's Client
Coach: Vincenzo Stampone
Other Week XIII scores:
AC Rosso - Livingston United 3:3
Nutley Krank - AC Montgomery 3:2
Standings:
| 1 | Kearny | 9 | 25 | 26 | 5 | |||
| 2 | Mt Olive | 10 | 23 | 26 | : | 12 | ||
| 3 | Nutley | 12 | 19 | 32 | : | 24 | ||
| 4 | AC Rosso | 10 | 18 | 26 | : | 20 | ||
| 5 | Livingston | 11 | 14 | 21 | : | 31 | ||
| 6 | Haledon | 9 | 13 | 28 | : | 29 | ||
| 7 | Denville | 9 | 9 | 25 | : | 28 | ||
| 8 | Paramus | 8 | 6 | 21 | : | 31 | ||
| 9 | AC Montgomery | 9 | 5 | 20 | : | 26 | ||
| 10 | SFC 1933 | 10 | 4 | 13 | : | 32 |
Leave a Comment