Wednesday, September 30, 2009

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Sophomore Casey Terramoccia scored the first two goals of the game, and his first two of the season, as West Milford crept back to within a game of .500 with a 3-0 win over Bergen Tech on Tuesday afternoon.

WEST MILFORD -- Before the NJSIAA began its two-year realignment plan West Milford was a member of the NHC-Skyline Division, while Bergen Tech had found a home in of the NNJIL and the two schools had little reason to concern themselves with each other. When the realignment is completed they will be in separate Divisions of the Big North Conference and again their paths will diverge. But for this year and specifically on Tuesday, West Milford and Bergen Tech found themselves in a whacky crossover game in the North Jersey Tri-County Conference, which is in its lone year of existence.

If there was to be a feeling out process, it would have to be a brief one as the road from Hackensack to West Milford took the Bergen Tech bus the better part of an hour to traverse and, after a brief 10 minute warm-up for the visitors, the two teams were on the pitch and going at it as newly minted “rivals”.

Tom Seo and Bergen Tech generated some quality chances.

“I was surprised that they only took 10 minutes to warm-up, so I told our guys to go right after it. They were on the bus for an hour coming up here to a new place and we were on the field practicing for an hour,” said West Milford head coach Greg Vetter. “We are used to the wind up here and keeping the ball on the ground because of it and I think we had an advantage right from the start.”

No matter the level of familiarity, the point of the game of soccer is to put the ball in the net and West Milford’s Casey Terramoccia picked as good a time as any to net the first two goals of his varsity career. Terramoccia ran in behind a shanked clearance attempt and slotted a shot inside the near post to give the Highlanders the lead in the 29th minute and then won the race to a through ball midway through the second half for the second goal of West Milford’s 3-0 win.

For Terramoccia, a sophomore who came off the bench, certainly made the most of his playing and made his case for more.

“I just knew that when I get in that position I just have to strike it the right way because I have to take advantage of the opportunity,” said Terramoccia, speaking off his first goal. “I have a lot of friends on this team now and we all support each other. I just have to make sure that, like today, I take advantage of the playing time that I get to help the team.”

Keeper Ian Jennings got his first shutout in two years as West Milford improved to 3-4.

Despite the 3-0 final score, the game was not a lop-sided affair as both teams generated changes in the wind that was blowing hard and straight across the field. In fact less than one minute had been played before West Milford tested the opposing net. After a save by Bergen Tech keeper Jacob Lemash, the Highlanders’ Rob Guthrie chased the bouncing ball to the far post and came up just a step short of being able to cut it back into the net. West Milford won consecutive corner kicks on the sequence, but both were played out as Bergen Tech avoided early trouble.

Bergen Tech had a legitimate chance in the 21st minute when Tom Seo’s long thrown-in from the left side hung up in the wind and provided the time for Marc Osian to run in and get a head on it, but the ball trickled just wide of the net. And, shortly after Terramoccia opened the scoring, Bergen Tech had a chance to answer, but Eddie Conklyn’s flicked header off a corner kick floated high of the mark.

West Milford nearly extended its lead before the break when Terramoccia got off a right-footed rip at the end of a run up the left side, but Lemash was up to the test as he punched the ball over the bar in the 36th minute. Off the resulting corner kick, Josh Basket’s header got past the keeper but was cleared off the line at the inside post by Jae Yu.

A flick header by BT's Eddie Conklyn (left) nearly tied the game in the 33rd minute.

Bergen Tech, which is playing without two injured starters in juniors Antoni Kata, a force on its back line, and Devon Toledo, who provided some early goals this season before breaking his wrist, almost tied the game shortly after halftime when Tom Seo’s half volley in 44th minute bounced off the crossbar.

The next shot to hit the back of the net was again taken by Terramoccia and it was set up by Guthrie, who broke through the middle and drew two defenders before moving the ball wide to his right. With Lemash sliding out hard and a defender trailing closely, Terramoccia was first to it and he tapped it into the near corner for the game-changing goal with just under 18 minutes to play.

Forced to apply more pressure, Bergen Tech became susceptible to the counter attack and one of them paid off in an insurance goal by Jeremy Efthimiades, who ran onto a long ball, went in 1-v-1 against the keeper and slipped in the game’s final goal in the 72nd minute.

West Milford improved to 3-4 with the win with a match against Wayne Valley scheduled for Wednesday and the Passaic County Tournament seeding meeting coming up the day after. After a disappointing 2008 campaign, the Highlanders are relishing the opportunity to make a run at the state tournament.

West Milford's Jeremy Efthimiades closed the scoring with his goal with 8:03 left to play in the game.

“We had a bad year last year, but we have stepped it up. We are playing more as a team and this is a good win to get under our belt to boost our confidence,” said Ian Jennings, West Milford’s starting goalkeeper. “I think communication was the biggest thing for us today in the back. I thought we did a good job of talking and making sure we had people marked and it paid off.”

The loss dropped Bergen Tech to 3-4 on the season, still very much in the running for the state tournament. The Knights seemed more than happy to get out of West Milford and get one with the rest of the season.

“We did not play our best game today, absolutely not. We’ve never played them before, we had an hour ride and a couple of minutes to warm up. We came into the game totally unprepared,” said Bergen Tech head coach Nelson Ramirez. “This was by far one of our worst games, and it showed, but I thought the game was a lot closer than the 3-0 end result. We will rebound. We are hoping to go .500 and make the states and hopefully by then we will have back our people who are hurt and will be a better team.”

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