Tuesday, September 30, 2008

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Keegan Carter had a goal, an assist and set up a penalty kick for Paramus Catholic, which improved to 7-0 with a 4-0 win over Hackensack.

PARAMUS -- Standing around a circle of his players after his team knocked off Hackensack, 4-0, on Monday afternoon, Paramus Catholic boys soccer coach Lenny Lewandowski had to come clean. Lewandowski has built a competitive program in his 11 years as the PC head coach and has had some talented players come through over the last decade, but now that the Paladins have won their first seven games of this season, Lewandowski had an admission to make.

So coach, is this the best team you have ever had at PC?

“This is the best team I have had top to bottom,” Lewandowski admitted.

But did you want your players to know your sentiments at this point in the season?

“Probably not,” he added with a laugh.

And while the admission might have been mistimed, it was getting to be a hard secret to keep. The Paladins have won all seven of the games they have played so far, they have scored 29 goals and they have allowed just one. Paramus Catholic possess the ball as well as any team in North Jersey, they have a seasoned group of players, multiple offensive options, a well organized defense and an outstanding goal keeper in Chris Todd.

Fred Amoah generated some of Hackensack's best scoring chances.

And even though the Paladins are not defending any titles, they are on the radar screen of every team that might run up against them in the Bergen County or state sectional tournaments.

“Psychologically I am aware of that and I am dealing with them on a daily basis, game by game and practice by practice. We need that type of focus because people are going to try to knock us off,” said Lewandowski. “But this has been building for longer than three years even though this is the first time that we have had all of the pieces.”

The pieces were in place on Monday and Paramus Catholic was moving them all into the right spots against a talented Hackensack side. Winning 50-50 balls, working complex combinations and marking tightly, the Paladins had everything but a goal to show for their efforts.

Hackensack keeper Rafael Pita was up to the task on several occasions and the Comets generated chances of their own through counterattacks and, despite giving ground, they almost took the lead in the 35th minute.

Harrison Lewandowski scored the goal that put PC up 2-0 late in the opening half.

Paramus Catholic was awarded a restart from 30 yards out and the ball was sent into the pile in front of the net and played out quickly by the Hackensack defense. The next touch was also made by the Comets and the result was a long ball that took a high bounce with Mark Ellison,, Jr. behind the last defender and looking to finish. But Todd came way off his line to clear away the trouble with his feet and it wasn’t even two minutes later that PC finally knocked the lid off the Hackensack goal.

Larry Serrano won a ball in the midfield and moved it quickly into the middle of the field for David Najem, who forced a Pita to make a tough save. Pita’s punt was taken down by PC and sent right back into Najem, who took on a defender and again forced Pita to lay down for a stop. But Najem followed his original effort and pounded home the rebound to give the Paladins the 1-0 advantage.

“We are a very good technical team and we have a lot of players that can do damage all over the field, so that makes it hard on a defense. We can defend, we can attack, we can build up and we use that to our advantage,” said Najem, a senior captain. “We have scored a lot of goals in the first half this year and we kind of had the feeling that it was going to come at any minute today. Hackensack is good, but we kept the pressure on and we were expecting it.”

Danny Mendoza and Hackensack have survived a tough early schedule at 3-3-1.

There were only about four minutes left in the first half, when Najem broke the ice, but the short time did not stop the Paladins from getting two more quality chances and another goal before the break. In the 37th minute, Harrison Lewandowski, another senior captain and the coach’s son, put a cross right on Keegan Carter, who just about dented the left post before the ball ricocheted out. Carter would make up for the missed opportunity with less than 30 seconds left in the first half when collected in the midfield and sent in Harrison Lewandowski, who slid in for a toe poke just in front of the rushing Pita for the 2-0 lead that PC took into intermission.

“They kept us on our heels a little bit. From the beginning of the game they put a lot of pressure on us and we just dropped back,” said Hackensack head coach David Wells, whose team fell to 3-3-1 on the season. “They didn’t do anything that surprised me; we just missed a lot of defensive tackles and allowed them to make space.”

To its credit, Hackensack came out flying in the second half and had a good opportunity early when Danny Mendoza set up Godfred Baafi at the 18, but Baafi’s volley sailed high of the mark. Hackensack was still within two goals midway through the second half but that changed in the 63rd minute when Carter was taken down hard in the penalty area and Jeffrey Barrenchea was called upon to knock in the PK to make it 3-0.

Sweeper Jeffrey Berrenchea is a key piece to Paramus Catholic's stout defense that has allowed just one goal all season.

Carter closed the scoring with 10 minutes to play when he took a pass from Najem along the left and chipped the keeper.

“We have a lot of offensive players that can get to the goal, so we don’t have to worry about that,” said Carter, a junior and a three-year starter. “For us the key is to make sure we get back behind the ball and stop the other team, which I thought we did really well today.”

And even when they had a momentary lapse, Todd was there to keep the shutout in tact. Todd was called upon to make just four saves, but he saved the best for his last. With just over five minutes to play, Hackensack’s Fred Amoah found a seam and pushed up the middle.

Todd was moving forward when he dove to his right and got just enough of Amoah’s shot to knock it off line outside the left post. Amoah got to the rebound, but by that time the defense had regained its shape and the rebound shot was knocked down in front.

“I don’t get so much action from game to game. That is the way it usually goes, I get one or two chances to make a big save and that is my chance to come through,” said Todd, another senior captain. “All the way across, our defense is real strong. Jeffrey Barrenchea sweeping, Mike Ferrari on the right, Nick [Maccarrone] on the left, John Jaramillo at stopper, our defense is so consistent and they have been a strength for us. We’ve only give up one goal all year and I haven’t had that much work. That says a lot about our defense.”

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