Monday, October 22, 2007

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Christian Valdivia scored twice in the final 13 minutes to lift Bosco past Tenafly and into the Bergen County semifinals.

FRANKLIN LAKES – It’s been a long year around the Don Bosco Prep boys soccer program, at least in terms of the Bergen County Tournament. The Ironmen were the top seed last season and as such were the foil in a stunning upset in the quarterfinals. Bosco pressured the Tenafly goal for 100 straight minutes only to see goalkeeper Ben Pearl and bad luck combine to turn a scoreless game into a loss in a penalty kick shootout. After making the county final for nine straight years, the Ironmen went out early for the second straight year.

It took 363 days for the opportunity to present itself again and it finally happened on Sunday as Bosco took its No. 1 seed into the rematch against Tenafly in this year’s quarterfinal. The Ironmen again had the better of play through the first half and into the start of the second, but there was an unmistakable, here-we-go-again moment.

After chasing the ball around the lot for most of the game, Tenafly got its first real scoring chance in the form of a penalty kick, the by-product of a foul in the penalty area. Jake Smith converted it and the Tigers had a lead and about 30 minutes to kill to pull off an improbable upset for the second straight year.

“Hey, we were up 1-0 and we know that if the game stays that way we would win,” said Tenafly head coach Bill Jaeger when asked if started to feel the magic that ran through his sideline on the same field last year. “Obviously we knew there was a tremendous amount of time left and you knew they were really going to keep coming at us.”

The Ironmen did keep the pressure on and it finally paid off when Tenafly returned the favor with a foul inside its own penalty area and Tom McNamara converted the PK to tie the score and finally knock the lid off the Tenafly goal after it was sealed tight for one year plus 67 minutes.

“Well, there we were again, huh?” said Bosco head coach Roy Nygren. “You stay patient, you attack wide and in the first half there it is…three, four good looks. I think we hit the post on one and [Pearl] made a few good saves, he just seemed to be there. I was scratching my head saying are we going to be good enough to really get in there? And then they get the PK and we go down 1-0. The fortunate thing was that was still enough time on the clock.”

Once Bosco found the range, it stuck with it. George Velasquez set up Christian Valdivia’s tie-breaking goal with 13 minutes left in regulation. Valdivia finished up and over Pearl and gave his team the lead for good before tacking on another goal three minutes later to really take the pressure off.

For Valdivia, that was pressure that had built up over four years starting when Bosco (15-0) lost to Tenafly on the freshman level in 2004.

“I lost to Tenafly freshman year and then last year we lost to them, so I’ve never been to a county final,” said Valdivia. “We thought we couldn’t score against this guy [Pearl]. He’s a good goalkeeper and you just have to keep going, take shots and eventually put one in.”

The win puts Bosco through to next weekend’s semifinal where it will play Bergen Catholic, a 2-1 overtime winner over Ramsey.

“There is always one game in this tournament that you are going to just have to find a way to get it done and this was one of those games. A tough Tenafly team, a 1-0 deficit, it was not easy but we got through it,” said Nygren, who added that the jury is still out on this year’s Bosco team, but also that the sky is the limit. “I am not going to say that this is the best team we have ever had, we’ll wait until the end of the season to discuss that, but this is a good team. And part of the challenge for a team like this is to take it one game at a time and respect every opponent without fearing anyone because this is a crazy game and crazy things happen.”

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