Friday, October 9, 2009

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

David Najem scored both of Paramus Catholic's goals and the Paladins held off a strong challenge in the second for its sixth straight win, 2-1, over N/V Demarest.

PARAMUS – When Paramus Catholic is in synch, it is a pretty brand of soccer to watch. The Paladins move the ball on the ground as well as any team in North Jersey and, with David Najem and Keegan Carter constantly probing the defense, they are never more than a quick counter attack or fancy through ball away from a quality scoring opportunity. When the Paladins are clicking, like they were in the first half against Northern Valley/Demarest on Thursday, the results usually follow.

Najem scored less than five minutes to give his team the lead and then added a second goal inside the last 12 minutes of the first half, staying onside by a step and converting a 1-v-1 opportunity. With as well as it played through the first 40 minutes, Paramus Catholic could not have known just how hard it would be to hang on for a 2-1 win, its sixth straight.

“Maybe I was too complimentary of them at halftime,” said PC head coach Lenny Lewandowski. “I thought we played a great half, but maybe I shouldn’t have told them at that time.”

Paramus Catholic had the better of play right from the get-go and was playing with the lead less than five minutes in. The combination started in the back when John Krzysik played a ball up to freshman Zach Reed. Reed brought the ball down and left it for Najem, who did the rest.

“John Krzysik played it over the top to Zach, he brought it down and then it was stuck between me and him,” said Najem, who will play next season at Columbia University. “I took it on the half bounce, looked far post and it went off the post and in. It was nice to get the lead early.”

Sevarg Kherlopian's thrown led to Demarest's goal 12 minutes into the second half.

Najem added his second goal of a feed from Krzysik and PC looked like it was comfortably in front heading into the break. But whatever Demarest head coach Jon Gray told his team at the intermission obviously sunk in because the Norsemen came out of it a different side. With goalkeeper Andrew Zagin up to the task of holding down the back, Demarest ramped up its pressure and made every effort to get back even.

Demarest’s hard work paid off in a throw-in from the left side six minutes into the second half and Sevag Kherlopian threw the ball into the pile and it skipped off to Ian O’Connor, who rifled a shot off the post. But Demarest’s bad luck ended there when Paramus Catholic was called for a handball on the rebound shot and Kherlopian buried the PK to get the Norsemen back to within 2-1 with still more than 30 minutes to play.

Demarest kept up the pressing and earned another restart that was kept alive by Alex Rich long enough for O’Connor to line up a quality chance that flew high of the bar 11 minutes into the second half. Searching so hard for the equalizer left Demarest vulnerable in the back, but that was just fine by Zagin, who made 11 saves, at least five of them of the outstanding variety.

“In the second half we had to push it. We needed this game really bad and we had to take some chances against a very smart team in Paramus Catholic. With Najem and Keenan [Carter] they put themselves in good spots, Andrew Zagin was great for us, especially in the second half,” said Demarest head coach Jon Gray. “I have to give my guys some credit. I thought we stretched Paramus Catholic to the end, they felt us coming, but you have to credit PC too. They held us off.”

Keegan Carter and Paramus Catholic are now 7-1 heading into the Bergen County Tournament.

Speaking of the schedule, it’ been a brutal one for Demarest and it they can’t count on any let up. The Norsemen are much better than their 2-5-1 record suggests, but hey have just three games left before the state tournament cutoff and need to win all three to get in. The opponents? Old Tappan, which took Demarest to overtime the first time around, Ramapo and Northern Highlands, the No. 6 and No. 9 seeds in the Bergen County Tournament.

Demarest has put together periods of steady play, like its second half against PC, just about every time out, but has been a break here or a break there away from making some headway against the stiff competition.

“We played 40 great minutes today, we played 40 great minutes against Ramapo, but unfortunately we were down 4-0 when we started to play there. We have played a couple of games with 40 great minutes, but games are 80 minutes and all of a sudden we are 2-5-1,” said Gray. “In our league, every single game is like this. There are no easy games and you have to give credit to a team like Paramus Catholic. They have done well against this schedule.”

Paramus Catholic has. It has not lost since the second game of the season, a 1-0 setback against defending Bergen County champion Ramapo, and is now 7-1 on the season and seeded seventh in the Bergen County Tournament. The success so far notwithstanding, it has not been easy for the Paladins by any stretch.

Demarest keeper Andrew Zagin did everything but stand on his head in an outstanding performance.

“Before the season started I was very concerned about the schedule because I figured that the teams in this league were all going to be looking to knock us off. They were going to look to beat us because we are the only parochial school in the league,” said Lewandowski, whose team played in the now defunct NNJIL prior to this season. “In the NBIL there are no easy games, where in the NNJIL you would play against a couple of great teams and then have a little lull. Not having those day-off kind of games makes it hard to go to the bench and we have been trying to fit guys in who have shown it in practice. It’s been different, but it has been a positive experience so far.”

And PC hopes that this is only the beginning. They will play the winner of Friday’s first round county tournament match between Midland Park and Paramus. The Paladins are hoping to get on a playoff run starting on Sunday.

“We are playing the soccer we want to play at this point of the season and we just want to continue it,” said Carter, a senior who will play next year at Georgetown University. “In the beginning of the season we had a lot of new players coming in, so we had to work on chemistry. But as the season has progressed, I am highly impressed by everybody who has stepped in. We have a lot of young kids on this team, but they have filled those roles and we have played like a team just like last year or any year when we had a successful season.”

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