Tuesday, October 5, 2009

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Ryan Walsh scored three goals in the first half as Old Tappan finally broke out offensively in a 6-1 win over Bergenfield.

OLD TAPPAN – Two losses in overtime to start the season, two more by one goal and all of a sudden the Old Tappan boys soccer team found itself behind the eight ball almost before it even had a chance to break in the new cleats. It’s a lesson of life in the NBIL where even solid teams can get off track and have trouble finding their way back.

That is why the Golden Knights needed a game like the one they had on Monday. After falling behind when Bergenfield’s Bairon Palacio scored inside the first six minutes, Old Tappan rattled off the next six goals, three of them by Ryan Walsh in the first half, to secure a 6-1 win, its first of the season.

“Earlier in the season we lost a lot of close games. Of our first four games we lost two in overtime and the next two by one goal,” said OT head coach Mike Hanchar. “We started to overcompensate with dribble, dribble, dribble, but in a game like today where we play the 1-2-3s, it looks pretty good. We haven’t been able to finish, so this was a welcomed change.”

Bairon Palacio put Bergenfield in front just six minutes in.

Old Tappan got even in the 10th minute when Nick Vizoukis earned a free kick deep in the right corner. Walsh got his leg up in time to get a piece of the cross and it flew by and banked it off a defender to tie the score.

The Knights went in front for good just two minutes later with some nice work up the right side. Sean Reilly put a throw-in on the foot of Vizoukis, who played it right back. Reilly then pushed the ball past a defender and deep into the corner before catching up to it and playing a low cross through the crease. Walsh timed his push through traffic perfectly and hammered home the ball with 28:07 to play in the first half.

Walsh made it 3-1 just more then halfway through the first half when he took a through ball from Jay Kim in the middle of the field and found the lower left. The three first half goals were one more than Old Tappan had scored through the first seven games of the season and the six it scored in the game tripled its season total.

“Our passing game was a lot better today. We were working give-and-gos and making runs down the side,” said Walsh, a sophomore, who was moved back from striker and into the midfield where he can better use his ability to run at defenders. “We really needed a win to pick our spirits up so today was definitely a good feeling for us.”

Sean Reilly assisted on Old Tappan's game-winner.

Old Tappan got second half goals from Vizoukis, Collin Russo and Seungri Chang to stretch out the final score and give itself a shot in the arm. With only four seniors on the roster and having lost a bulk of its scoring when Jaime Eckmeyer (Drew University) graduated last June, Old Tappan is in a rebuilding mode, but is looking to use the rest of this season to make life difficult for the rest of its opponents.

“That is why we were still pushing so hard at the end of this game, because we want to get off the schneid here, score some goals and get on a run,” said Hanchar. “We only have four seniors and we are pulling guys up [to the varsity] to take a look at them. We have been a little bit disappointed with some of our results from the beginning of the year and I’ve told our kids that we can use the rest of the season as payback time. Hopefully this can be the start of something good.”

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