Thursday, September 17, 2009

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Nick Picache was credited with Northern Highlands first goal, set up its second and flicked home the third as the Highlanders knocked off Ramapo, 3-1, in Allendale.

ALLENDALE -- By loading up Northern Valley/Old Tappan, Ramapo, Paramus Catholic and Northern Valley/Demarest -- a group that includes last season's Bergen County champion, that tournament's top seed and another one of its qualifiers -- as its first four games of the season, it did not look like the schedule maker wasn't doing Northern Highlands any favors. But now halfway through the season opening gauntlet it looks like the schedule maker was just trying to build the Highlanders' confidence.

After squeaking past Old Tappan by a goal in its season opener, Northern Highlands put together an eye-opener, a convincing 3-1 win over defending Bergen County champion Ramapo on Wednesday afternoon.

“I’ve watched that Ramapo program from a long time and that is as good as it gets when it comes to public school programs in North Jersey,” said Highlands head coach Pat Naughter. “But for today, we were good. They had a tough game on Monday night and because of a quirk in our schedule we were off since Friday and that was a huge advantage. I don’t want to take away from our guys because we worked hard and we stuck to the game plan, especially in the second half.”

Ramapo freshman Mike Taranto scored his first varsity goal on his first varsity shot.

That game plan was to take away the middle of the field against a Ramapo team with the quickness to get into any space left open by lost defenders. By disrupting the Green Raiders’ passing game Highlands was then able to get out on the counter attack and one of those led to the decisive goal.

Nick Pinache got the ball in good shape on the left side and pushed hard toward the middle of the field. He presented enough danger to be brought down just outside the penalty area and that gave Matiss Batarags the opportunity to line up a free kick. He roofed it and gave the Highlanders the lead for good.

“It was easy for me because Nick did all of the work. We’ve been working a lot on free kicks and we’ve been bringing out walls in practice and really practicing getting them on target at least, so if it is saved we can get a rebound,” said Batarags, one of five seniors in Highlands’ starting lineup. “Luckily I made good contact and it went in.”

Northern Highlands (2-0) made its second lead of the game stand up as its first lasted only for a span of 1:37 of the first half. The Highlanders got on the board first in the 26th minute when Picache’s thru ball hit off the foot of a defender and snuck inside the post for an own-goal and a 1-0 lead. But Ramapo, which lost nine seniors from last year’s county championship team, starts three freshmen in its revamped lineup and one of them got the Green Raiders even.

Adam Schwartz (25) was an anchor on Highlands' back line.

Mike Taranto took a feed in the middle of the field and patiently waited for a defender to pass before placing the ball in the lower left corner. It was Taranto’s first varsity goal on his first varsity shot and Ramapo forged the 1-1 tie that showed on the scoreboard at halftime.

But it was after the break that Northern Highlands really started to close off the middle of the field, Ramapo’s favored route of attack and from where it scored its lone goal. But when Highlands began to close off that artery it also added to its advantage in possession.

“They are dangerous of you let them play in the middle of the field. They can put together three guys in there that can dictate the game and we tried to take that away,” said Naughter. “In the first half they got some space in there and they got possession of the ball and got some things done. But in the second half we got back to taking care of the middle of the field. For us it all starts in the back I have to say that Alex Sonageri and [Adam] Schwartz were excellent back there today.”

AJ Voorman is one Ramapo's three senior starters.

Unable to crack the middle Ramapo’s normally crisp passing was disrupted and the lack of possession kept it from earning the restarts that makes it dangerous on most days.

“They outplayed us and they outworked us. Pat [Naughter] had them ready to play and they exposed us in a couple of areas that we have to go back and work on,” said Ramapo head coach Evan Baumgarten, whose team opened the season with a win over Paramus Catholic, but now has to be concerned with the confidence level of a young team that has just three senior starters.

Is that going to be an issue the Green Raiders will have to deal with all season?

“I don’t know,” said Baumgarten, “but we are going to find out soon.”

Confidence is not an issue for Highlands, which closed out the scoring when Picache flicked in a long restart played up from the back by Songeri with just over 12 minutes left to play.

Matiss Batarags scored the game-winner for Highlands on a free kick in the 49th minute.

“On the last goal I saw the ball in the air and I knew it was coming to me. I just had to get a head on it and we were all excited when it when it to put us up two goals,” said Picache. “Ramapo is really good. They’ve shown it for a long time, but today we worked hard. We got what we deserved and we are happy with the result.”

Rather than seeing the first four games as a rough patch that has to be endured, the Highlanders can now look at it as an opportunity put themselves in the top level of teams in Bergen County.

“Before the season we talked about how the first four games were going to be really tough, three of the first four away and all against good teams. We talked about how if we could come away with two wins or even 1-3 it would be decent and not kill us,” said Batarags. “Getting the first two wins is obviously a big confidence booster, but we can get overconfident. We have to keep working and hopefully the next two will turn out well.”

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