Thursday, October 1, 2009

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Oscar Gonzalez assisted on the final two goals of Clifton's 3-0 win at Ridgewood.

RIDGEWOOD -- Having won the Passaic County boys soccer tournament in 16 of the 26 years that it has been played and being one of the state's best programs on a year-in, year-out basis, including winning last year's North 1, Group 4 state sectional title, Clifton has played some good halves of soccer in its illustrious history. Even this season as it had piled up a 6-0-1 record heading into Wednesday's match, the Mustangs have been consistently dangerous. But even by their standards, the Mustangs' first 40 minutes against Ridgewood stood out.

“It really was the half that we have been looking for. We are getting to the point we are developing good offensive movement, good combination play, good through balls on the ground to the forwards. I am very pleased with the first half,” said Clifton head coach Joe Vespignani. “We have been right on the brink of getting there and now we are getting goals off it, so we are happy.”

Griffin Abbott had one of the Maroon's best scoring chances of the first half.

That happiness came in a 46-second spurt when Clifton scored the first two goals of its 3-0 win at Maple Shade Park. Rarely, if ever, playing a ball in the air, the Mustangs instead moved it quickly along the carpet and generated chances right from the get-go, starting with Victor Manosalvas’ quick poke off the crossbar three minutes into the game.

Clifton took advantage of a mistake to take the lead in the 12th minute when Igor Petrovic pounced on a poorly played clearance attempt and carried it to his right, across the face of the goal and, when the defense cleared, he went low left for the game’s first goal.

“We have been working hard in practice and we knew that we had to come out and finish early,” said Petrovic. “We were really prepared to play well when we got here because we know we have to play well every game because it is all a part of the process to bigger things. We knew Ridgewood was good, but we put it all together and really played a great first half.”

It took only 44 seconds for the Mustangs to strike again. Josean Moquillaza settled a ball in the middle 30 yards from the goal and then sent a short chip to the right corner where Gonzalez corralled it and then won the end line. Gonzalez pulled the defense toward him and when it converged, he set up Christian Castro for a short volley that gave Clifton a 2-0 lead with just over 12 minutes played.

Igor Petrovic scored in the 12th minute to give Clifton the lead for good.

“Yesterday at practice coach [Vespignani] brought in me, Victor [Manosalvas], Oscar [Gonzalez] and Igor [Petrovic] and told us that we have the potential to be one of the best teams in the state if we continue to work hard,” said Moquillaza. “And we were ready to play today because Ridgewood beat us on our field last year. We remembered that and we knew that we were going to need the kind of first half that we played today to get the win.”

Ridgewood had a couple of chances to get back in the game and the first one came shortly after Clifton’s second goal. Luke Mueller’s throw-in was taken down by Griffin Abbott and he got off a left-footed shot that looked dangerous until it floated over the crossbar.

In the 25th minute, Ridgewood was awarded a free kick from about 40 yards on the left side and David Friedes lined the restart into the crowd in front of the net. Clifton keeper Jonathan Diaz punched out the original offering, but Abbot kept the ball alive long enough for Alex Branton to get off a shot that was ticketed for the far corner before it was cleared off the line by a Clifton defender.

Ridgewood's Alex Sommer sliding in hard to break up an attack.

Eight minutes later, Gonzalez again won the end line on the right side and played the ball back to Manosalvas, who hammered home Clifton’s third goal 7:44 before halftime.

“We thought we had great game plan going in against them, but we didn’t execute to it and they took full advantage. They were able to walk in with combination play and put the ball in the back [of the net],” said Ridgewood head coach Craig Mahler. “We didn’t stick to the game plan and they scored two [goals] in 40 seconds.”

With the loss Ridgewood fell to 4-3 on the season with games against Lakeland, Don Bosco Prep, Hackensack and St. Joseph Regional left before the Bergen County Tournament cutoff. Three wins and a 7-4 record would almost certainly give the Maroons a bid, while two wins over that span would leave them at 6-5 and firmly on the borderline. Strength of schedule works overwhelmingly in Ridgewood’s favor as its three losses to date have been to Bergen Catholic, Clifton and Paramus.

“We still have the same goal to make the county tournament and to improve to the point where we are a threat in the state tournament. We have to do a better job of listening to the game plan and executing it and a better job of putting our bodies in the 6 [yard line] and force havoc to happen,” said Mahler. “Obviously when you lose to Clifton you are not hanging your heads in the respect that they are a great, quality program with tremendous skill, but we have to take the lessons from this game and apply them moving forward.”

Victor Manosalvas scored Clifton's final goal.

Clifton (7-0-1) will open defense of its Passaic County Tournament co-championship (it tied Passaic County Tech in last year’s final), as the No. 1 seed on Saturday against No. 16 Kennedy with a game against Hackensack on scheduled for tonight and three league games next week. But the Mustangs are looking to change anything as of right now as they are clicking right now.

“Victor Manosalvas and Oscar Gonzalez, the two midfielders, with Josean Moquillaza behind them, those three guys really move the ball well with great combination play and building control of the midfield,” said Vespignani. “Igor Petrovic up front is back in scoring form. He led the team [in goals] last year and he is at five already this year, so things are progressing nicely. We are a well-balanced team and we will continue to experiment and exhaust every option in order to improve on our foundation.

“The goal here is to use the league and the county tournaments as a process to understand all of our strengths and weaknesses and, come state tournament, to be in the best possible form that we can be. We’ve used that philosophy the last couple of years and it has worked.”

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