WW-P North, B’town bow out in states
BORDENTOWN >> The Bordentown High boys soccer team battled as hard Monday as it had to capture its record fourth straight Burlington County Scholastic League Patriot Division crown and gain the top seed for the NJSIAA South Jersey Group II Tournament.
This time, however, victory eluded the Scotties as fourth-seeded Manasquan came up with a goal with just over a minute left in the first overtime to knock off the top seed, 1-0.
The Big Blue Warriors (14-6-2) will make their first trip in over a decade to a sectional title game when they head to second-seeded Delran (16-5-1) Thursday. The Bears defeated thirdseeded Haddonfield, 4-2, Monday at Westampton Tech.
Bordentown is left to reflect upon a fabulous 15-4-3 season, which surpassed its win total of 2017, but did not result in a trip to a sectional final. That last happened in 2015. Only five of second-year head coach Jason Zablow’s current roster were freshmen when that occurred, giving the Scotties high hopes for the future.
“We had a list of goals we wanted to accomplish this season, and we were doing a lot of it with a good core we knew would be coming back,” Zablow said.
But B’town was not looking to the future. It wanted to score as badly as the Big Blue Warriors, but was having just as much trouble with on-and-off rain and a steady westerly wind as the visitors from down the shore.
“We expected this game to be a shin-banger,” Zablow said. “Both teams really went after it, and we were about one minute from getting the wind at our backs again.”
Instead, Manasquan was able to capitalize for the only time in the game despite strong play from Scotties junior goalkeeper Stratos Gromitsaris and Warriors junior ‘keeper Joe Weinstein.
After a number of near misses and strong end-toend play by both teams, the Big Blue Warriors got a corner kick in Bordentown’s end after Gromitsaris made a spectacular, one-handed diving save to pop a 35-yard bullet from senior Matt Drake over the net.
Senior fullback Sam DelGuercio pushed forward to take the corner kick and made sure he kept an eye on his tall classmate, Tim Wheat, crashing the far post.
Wheat headed a bouncing ball into the net for the first goal of his career with 1:06 left in the first overtime as Gromitsaris got tangled with a couple of players at the post. It was one of the few shots Gromitsaris, who made eight saves, was unable to touch.
“I’ve played defense all three years I’ve been on varsity, so I had to get one (a goal) before I was done,” said Wheat, who had seen Gromitsaris punch away another of his headers two minutes into OT. “I was just sitting back at the post, waiting for a floater.”
Wheat got his wish to keep the home team from getting more chances of its own.
With 7:14 left in regulation and the wind at their backs, the Scotties had had their best chance at scoring when senior John Reichert ripped consecutive blasts at Weinstein, only to see the goalie make back-to-back diving saves before the follow-up shot went over the crossbar.
B’town fullbacks Shane Ritter, Aiden Amankwah, Sean Pedersen and Colton Huntanar did a great job to keep the home team alive as long as they did.
Huntanar had cleared a shot by Tommy Johnson away from the goal line with 17 minutes left in the second half. Johnson had narrowly missed wide with another chance two minutes before halftime. Then all held their breath when Manasquan’s Drew Greenblatt skipped a crossing shot inches wide with 1:55 left in regulation.
The Scotties could not convert close calls from Kevin Cryan, Cameron Schroeder and Logan Saranin when they had the wind and never got another chance to have it at their backs after Wheat spoiled Bordentown’s state tournament dreams.
Manasquan(14-6-2) 0 0 1 — 1 Bordentown(15-4-3) 0 0 0 — 0
Goal: Wheat (M); Assist: DelGuercio (M). Shots: 9 (M), 6 (B); Saves: Weinstein 6 (M), Gromitsaris 8 (B).