Tuesday, October 6, 2009

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Bayonne's Edgar Contreras scored twice in a 55-second span for all the offense the Bees needed to knock off Ferris.

JERSEY CITY – Both Bayonne and Ferris came into this boys soccer season with extremely young teams, knowing they were going to take their lumps on the pitch. This was especially true for Bayonne, which lost 10 starters from last year and does not have a single senior on its roster. A bright spot for the Bees this season was coming back from a two-goal deficit to beat Ferris several weeks ago. But when the two teams met again yesterday, Bayonne had no intention of falling behind again; and it was Edgar Contreras who made that it did not.

Contreras, a sophomore striker, connected twice in a 55-second span. Those goals stood up as Bayonne survived a second-half rally and held on for a 2-1 victory.

Ferris’ Mohamed Wally had an early scoring chance in the 4th minute. But hit point-blank volley was snuffed out by Bayonne keeper Daniel Baez and from then on the Bees dominated the rest of the half.

Goalkeeper Jonathan Bellanger made a diving save on a shot by John Paul Herrera, but Ferris could only hold off Bayonne for so long. In the 21st minute, an unmarked Contreras took a pass from Herrera just outside the box. He took a dribble and bent a shot into the upper left-hand corner for a 1-0 lead. Less than a minute later, he struck again.

Mohamed Wally scored to get Ferris within one goal with 10 minutes left in the game.

After a failed clearing attempt by the Bulldogs, the ball rolled out to Contreras at almost the exact same spot where he scored just 55 seconds earlier. His low-liner just got past the diving Bellanger and snuck inside the right post to give Bayonne a 2-0 lead that they took into halftime.

“I had enough space to take a shot and I just let it go,” said Contreras. “We get motivated to score more when we score first. The first one I knew was going in when I hit it. The second one I was just hoping it would go in. I just took a chance and it ended up being a good goal.”

As anemic as Ferris was offensively in the first half, it was just the opposite in the second. Down two goals, the Bulldogs played with a sense of urgency and worked hard to make it a game. Unfortunately, the framework of the net robbed them on several occasions early. In the first 12 minutes of the second half, they hit the post twice and the crossbar once. However, none of those shots ricocheted in and Bayonne held onto its lead.

Ferris finally broke through with exactly 10 minutes to play. Wally backheeled a pass to himself and got off a shot between two defenders that curved into the side netting.

That trimmed the lead to 2-1, but the Bulldogs could not net the equalizer. Karim Younes had the best chance on a long shot with three minutes to go that bent over the crossbar and Bayonne got its second one-goal win of the season over Ferris. Despite the loss, Ferris (2-8) head coach Roberto Escobar likes the effort and the direction of the kids in his program.

Bayonne keeper Daniel Baez made six saves.

“You never like to lose, but we came out and gave it everything we had,” said Escobar. “We’re still a young team and have virtually no big-game experience. We had our chances and we still have to learn how to win. But we’re working hard and I’m proud of the kids who are sticking out a tough season. We’re getting better and we’ll start seeing our hard work pay off soon.”

Baez made six saves to pick up the win in net for Bayonne (4-7). The win also snapped a five-game losing streak for the Bees, who will look to build a winning streak when they face Hudson Catholic tomorrow.

“We just wanted to get back to winning games, that’s the most important thing,” said Bayonne’s John Paul Herrera. “A lot of teams have a lot of seniors and a lot of experience and we don’t have that. But we’re getting a lot better from where we were at the beginning of the season. We wanted to finish out the season strong and be ready to make a run at the county title next year.”

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