This year, it is a different approach at the top of Tenafly’s setup.

“Jamie was a big bull. He was the workhorse of the team last year and the guy we all wanted to get the ball to,” said Mark Prussin, a senior striker who is now more in the mix offensively. “Now it is different. We are all seniors, we know what we are playing for and we know our jobs. Me, James [McCarthy], Jason [Kleinman] and Brian [Samuels] click well together as an offensive four.”

Tenafly’s newfangled offense was effective, if not as accurate as it would have liked on Wednesday at home against Rutherford. The Tigers had numerous chances on goal and settled for a 3-0 win and a 2-0-1 start to the season.

“We would have liked to finish a couple more of our chances out there, but that has kind of been our struggle so far,” said Tenafly head coach Bill Jaeger. “We need to finish better. We put a lot of balls out front, a lot of people had quality looks, and those are good signs, but then we mis-struck the ball or over-struck it. We just didn’t really get the clean kind of hits and that is what we really need to do to be considered a team on a higher level.”

Kleinman scored four minutes into the opening half against Rutherford to give the Tigers some early breathing room, but the Tigers hit a post, missed a penalty kick and had a player sent off under yellow over the next 12 minutes and came up empty over that stretch. It was not until the 31st minute that the Tigers were able to extend their lead to the 2-0 edge they took into halftime.

On the second bounce off a corner kick by McCarthy, Alex Kagy, who moved up from the back to make a large target on the set piece, got his head on the bouncing ball and knocked it home for the goal.

The Bulldogs managed just one shot against Tenafly senior keeper Ben Pearl in the first half, but Rutherford keeper Alex Rivera was outstanding in the first 40 minutes to keep his team relatively close. And in the second half, Rivera’s teammates picked up their pace and were able to, for stretches at least, keep possession in the midfield and beyond.

Pearl was forced to come out hard to break up a Rutherford corner kick early in the second half and the Bulldogs’ had at least three more quality chances. Pat Bonner hit a volley off another corner kick that just flew the crossbar, Chris Garcia had a one-time chance in the box and Pearl made his toughest save of the game with less than five minutes left, closing down a Bruno Abrahao shot at the left post.

Rutherford fell to 1-4 with the loss, but that won/loss record is a bit deceiving. The Bulldogs, members of the small school grouping in the BCSL-American Division, only have to play Tenafly, Cliffside Park, Fort Lee and River Dell (all members of the big school grouping) one time each this season. There is still plenty of time for Rutherford to turn it around and make a run at the postseason.

“We are good when we work hard; we are competitive when we work hard. When we don’t give the effort than we are not as good as we can be and we did not show well in the first half. We got outworked,” said Rutherford head coach John Randazzo. “But we have good players and, more importantly we have good kids, and if we come to play we can be a good team. We’ve had some injuries and we’ve made some mistakes, but we definitely are good enough to make the states, and I am optimistic that we will make the states.”

Tenafly is a program that aims higher. It starts every season thinking league title and long postseason runs and looks like a strong side once again. A 1-1 tie against Fort Lee is the only half-blemish and, through three games, the Tigers have a goal differential of 12-1 on the positive side.

They have also been made stronger by the arrival of McCarthy, a junior transfer from Demarest who assisted on two goals (the last was Sam Smith’s volley in 62nd minute that closed the scoring) and hit the corner kick that led to the other. McCarthy played club soccer for Tenafly United and was a teammate of both Kleinman and Prussin as recently as two years ago. He is also fast in running the flanks.

“Being the new player, I think I fit in fine. I used to play with [Prussin and Kleinman] when I was younger,” said McCarthy. “As soon as I came back to the team I felt like we had and automatic connection, especially me, Mark and Jason up top and Brian [Samuels] being the attacking mid.”

Tenafly has Englewood and Westwood on the immediate horizon and then a showdown in Cliffside Park on September 28.

“Our goal obviously is to win the league and go undefeated. Our tie against Fort Lee kind of brought our moral down but we are going back up,” said Prussin. “We are not going to take anybody lightly because anything can happen on a given day, so obviously we want to beat Englewood, beat Westwood and get what we are waiting for [in Cliffside Park].”