Saturday,
October 24, 2009
By
Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
RIDGEWOOD – Coming
into this week, the Ridgewood boys soccer team knew that its state
tournament seed and it shot at a home game would be decided by
whether they took care of business in winnable games. But against
a Fair Lawn side that had lost five straight coming into Friday’s
tilt with Ridgewood, the Maroons were dominated for the majority
of the first half and trailed by a goal. That was until a spark
from an unlikely source got them back on track.
Luke Muller scored
with three seconds left in the first half, and Alex Sommer netted
the game-winner 1:05 into the second half as Ridgewood held on
for a 2-1 triumph at Maple Field.
“Not the consistency
we were looking for today, but woke up at the right time,”
said Ridgewood head coach Craig Mahler. “Luke (Muller) came
up huge for us and it took a lot of pressure off of us going into
halftime.”
Fair Lawn came out
with intensity from the opening whistle desperate to stop its
losing streak and got on the board 14 minutes into the half when
Luke Walsh settled a ball, turned and fired a hard shot on the
ground. It kissed the left post and bounced in to give the Cutters
a 1-0 lead.
It seemed the lead
was going to stay that way until Ridgewood was awarded a corner
kick with just seconds to play in the opening half. Muller, who
had come off the bench just minutes earlier, was unmarked at the
back post on Matt Sommer’s corner kick. He collected the
ball and drilled a shot into the back of the net with three seconds
to play that tied the score at 1.
“We played so
well in the first half and one breakdown cost us,” said
Fair Lawn head coach Tony Nylander. “I think that carried
over into the second half and we let up another quick one. We
have stretches where we play good soccer, but also have stretches
where we play poorly and you can’t have that. We didn’t
give them too many easy chances, but we gave them two and that
was enough to let this game slip away.”
Alex Sommer ran onto
a long ball played by Joe Mullen just inside the top of the box.
Fair Lawn keeper Edward Medow came out to challenge, but Sommer
barely beat him to the ball. He got enough of a foot on a shot
to pop it over Medow and into the net to put the Maroons ahead,
2-1.
Fair Lawn (4-10) had a chance to tie the game with just over 13
minutes to go when a foul in the box gave them a penalty kick,
but that kick was pushed wide left and the Cutters got off just
one shot the rest of the way.
The win moved Ridgewood
to 10-5-1 and it likely earned a first-round home game in the
North 1, Group 4 state tournament. With a well-organized back
line and top-notch scoring threat Griffin Abbott up top, the Maroons
will be a dangerous draw for any team in the states.
“We
have to come out and do what we’re capable of doing, no
matter who we play,” added Mahler. “We are gaining
confidence and we’re doing it at the right time. It’s
tough to play two days in a row, but we rose to the occasion and
created scoring chances. If we can keep playing the way we have
been lately, we have a chance to make a run.”
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