Wednesday, September 26, 2007

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Junior Tom Breault scored a goal in the second half as Ramapo pulled away late in a 6-2 win over Indian Hills that pushes the Raiders' record to 6-0 on the season.

OAKLAND -- It would be hard to quibble with the style of play that the Ramapo boys soccer team employed last season. After all, the Green Raiders won a league championship, a State sectional championship and shared the Bergen County title. Last year Ramapo had EJ Alvarado, a bull of a forward who needed the ball often to be effective in wearing down a defense, and Tim Decilveo, whose long throw-ins led to many of the Raiders' goals.

While it was effective, it was not always pretty to watch. But with Alvarado (now playing at the University of Delaware), Decilveo and a host of other players from last year’s roster of 27 players now graduated, the Green Raiders have a new look with the same old results, at least so far.

Scoring five times in the second half, three times in the final 10 minutes of the game as Indian Hills pushed forward in full catch-up mode, Ramapo spread the ball around to the open man and got goals from five different players in a 6-2 win on Tuesday in Oakland that ran the Raiders’ record to 6-0.

Senior keeper Anthony Vespa kept Indian Hills hanging around until the final 10 minutes.

“In the middle we like to swing the ball around and get everyone involved. We are not one dimensional, we like to attack from all angles and move the ball around a lot,” said John Fiorenzo, Ramapo’s senior center-mid. “We are a lot more well-rounded this year, we are getting goals from everywhere.”

But while the Raiders have now scored 23 goals through the first six games, they were not as easy to come by on Tuesday as the final score might have suggested thanks in large part to Indian Hills senior keeper Anthony Vespa, who was outstanding, especially in the first half.

Playing the offsides trap, IH walked the fine line between frustrating the Raiders and leaving Vespa exposed to 1-v-1 opportunities. Ramapo was caught offsides four times in the first half, but also had its share scoring opportunities, one of which led to the game’s first goal in the 12th minute.

A throw in by Phil Pappas skipped off the pile in front of the net and landed on the foot of Nader Saadawi, who was unmarked and able to take his time in steering the ball into the net. That made it 1-0 and, off just about the same set up, almost made it 2-0 less then two minutes later when Saadawi got free again off a restart only to see Vespa make a brilliant save while charging hard way off his line.

Senior John Fiorenzo had a goal an assist as a part of Ramapo's offense that has now scored 23 goals in its first three games.

Indian Hills had just two shots on goal in the first half, but it was quality over quantity as the Braves got even in the 29th minute. With what should have been a corner kick that was changed to a throw-in by the referee on the opposite side of the field. Jake Morin’s toss cleared the pack in front and got to the back post where Ross Mahi muscled it home.

Vespa made two tough saves in the final 10 minutes of the first half to keep the game even heading into the break. The first came off a rip by Rob Santaniello, who had time to settle the ball at the 18, and the second came in the 31st minute, Chris Kuehn sent in Santaniello only to see Vespa slide out to blow up the play and Robert Buis hustle in to clear the rebound.

But there was still a second half to play and Ramapo kept up the pressure. Eleven minutes in, Fiorenzo got deep with possession and dropped a pass to Tom Breault, who drilled one into the low left corner to give the Raiders the lead.

“John [Fiorenzo] made some nice moves in the corner and I saw and opening on the 18 and waited for it,” said Breault, a junior. “I called for the ball, John made a nice lay-off pass to me and I was able to put it in. When you get those kind of chances you don’t want to miss them and the most important part is to make sure the shot is on net.”

Richard Bishop scored with just over 16 minutes to go in the second half to draw Indian Hills within 3-2.

Will O'Connor set up Ramapo’s third goal with some hustle in the 63rd minute. He got involved on a 50/50 ball and appeared to take the short end of a collision along the sideline. But instead of being knocked off the play, O'Connor was quick to his feet, collected the ball and sent a long serve to the opposite side where Drew Davis was making a run. Barely onside, but with a step on the last defender, Davis gave Ramapo a 3-1 lead with 17:53 to play.

That seemed like a good time for Indian Hills to accept defeat, to pack it in and settle for a good effort against an elite opponent, but when Richard Bishop scored off another throw-in, the Braves went the other way. Down 3-2 with 10:35 left in the game, Indian Hills (3-2-1) decided to go for the equalizer.

Instead, Ramapo got two goals from Santaniello in the two-and-a-half minutes after IH’s final goal and the Raiders got a final tally by Fiorenzo inside the final two minutes to distort the final score.

“We gambled a little bit on defense with some things. It was 1-1 at halftime, 3-2 with 10:35 to go and we could sit back and have the score look nice at 3-2 or we could go forward and try to get the equalizer,” said Steve Every, who is in his fourth season as the Indian Hills head coach. “Ramapo is a quality team and when you stretch things out in the back and they get a counter they are going to make you pay and that is what happened. They got those tack on goals at the end that made it look pretty bad.”

Ramapo's Rob Santaniello scored twice late in the second half.

It looked good from the Ramapo bench where the Raiders have seemingly not skipped a beat, retooling their approach to fit their personnel while maintaining their status as one of the State’s top teams.

“It’s always a new team. The fun part of high school soccer is that it is always a new team and you have to establish a camaraderie and a sense of selflessness for the team,” said Ramapo head coach Evan Baumgarten. “We are getting there, it is a work in progress, and it goes on [the players] will get better on that end of things.”

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