Saturday, November 7, 2009

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Ben Picache scored off a first half free kick to give Northern Highlands the only goal it needed in a 1-0 win over Wayne Valley in the quarterfinals of the North 1, Group 3 state sectional tournament.

WAYNE -- For the first 140 or so minutes of its playoff run, Northern Highlands relied on its offense. It was the Highlanders attack that put up five goals against Tenafly in a comfortable opening round win and it was one solid strike of a free kick and a well-played flick that gave the Highlanders a halftime lead against Wayne Valley in the North 1, Group 3 quarterfinals. Highlands even put together some dangerous counter attacks for the first 20 minutes of the second half against Wayne Valley, but right after that the Highlanders put the burden on their defense and it was a heavy weight to carry.

For the final 20 minutes, Wayne Valley relentlessly went after the equalizer and for 20 minutes Northern Highlands held it off in a way best told by senior goalkeeper Jake Miller.

“It’s what being a goalkeeper comes down to. You have hours of boredom and minutes of terror,” said Miller. “And the last couple [of minutes] were terror-ful, to invent a word.”

Jason Rosenberg and the Wayne Valley attack applied pressure right to the final whistle.

Terror-ful works and so did Highlands’ defense, which stood up to the late game pressure and held on for a 1-0 victory on Friday afternoon at Wayne Valley High School. The win lands the sixth-seeded Highlanders in the sectional semifinals where it will play NBIL rival Northern Valley/Old Tappan, the No. 15 seed that pulled off its second straight tournament upset of No. 7 Passaic Valley.

“That second half took, I think, about a month-and-a-half to play. It didn’t seem like the clock was moving,” said Northern Highlands head coach Pat Naughter. “Especially because this team [Wayne Valley] is excellent. They won their county tournament and their league for a reason. They keep the ball, they knock it around and technically we knew it was going to be difficult to keep up with them. We knew they could score at any time.”

But it was Highlands junior Ben Picache who scored for the only time in the game. He got position in the box midway through the first half as PJ Abplanalp sent a free kick from near midfield into the penalty area. Picache was first to it and flicked it home for the only goal that the Highlanders needed.

“It was a free kick from half field and I just got to the back post. PJ served the ball, I made a run inside, cut through some people and got my head on it and it went in,” said Picache. “We knew they were county champs and we knew it was going to be a tough game the whole time. We just wanted to give it our best effort and try to outwork them the whole time.”

PJ Abplanalp's serve from midfield led to Highlands' goal.

The hard work started with about 20 minutes to go when Highlands switched to a defensive posture and gave Wayne Valley more than half the field. When Highlands did gain possession it chose to either clear the ball on the fly or try to pin it in the corners to whittle time off the clock. And as the time wound down below 10 minutes and then less than five, Wayne Valley’s desperation only grew.

For the Indians, it was the equivalent of trying to push a rock up a hill and then retreating to the bottom when it failed to reach the summit. Wayne Valley would organize an attack, pressure the goal and then have to start all over again when Northern Highlands was able to clear the ball from the back third.

With 4:24 showing on the second half clock a foul gave Wayne Valley a free kick from 40 yards out. It was played in by Dan DiMiaio and then played out by the head of Highlands’ Alex Sonageri.

Dan DiMiaio's serves led to many of Wayne Valley's late chances.

“They are very dangerous and it was very important that we stayed organized and stayed composed throughout the match. I have a great set of defensemen around me and our midfield worked hard in winning balls. That was the key for us,” said Sonageri, who noted that the final 10 minutes seemed to take ‘a million years’. “It was important to remember that we were still just playing soccer and that we had to focus on the basics. You can’t overwork yourself, get hyped up and make a mistake. We just had to keep doing what we were doing and we got what we deserved.”

With 3:15 left, Jon Gaffney was able to volley a cross sent in by DiMiaio but the shot sailed just high of the crossbar and Wayne Valley had two more chances in the final two minutes, both of them forced Miller to get involved.

The first one was set up by a handball called against Northern Highlands 30 yards from goal and in the middle of the field. Again it was DiMiaio who sent in the service, this time looking for the head of Jason Rosenberg, who went up hard looking for the flick. Miller charged out hard and got enough of the ball with a punch to send it skidding to the right where Sonageri played it out. Inside the final minute Miller punched away a corner kick, which turned into the last chance of Wayne Valley’s season, which included the Passaic County championship, the NJTCC league title and a 16-5-1 record.

Highlands keeper Jake Miller was agressive in clearing away trouble in the final few minutes.

“It was a good run and that is something I mentioned to the team in the huddle, especially the seniors. They did a nice job of leading by example,” said Wayne Valley head coach Dan Kilday. “We set our sites on a progress and a process of how we wanted to develop over the course of the year. It is difficult to see that process with an end result like this in the state tournament when you get bumped out, but the boys played very well, they created some great friendships, a lot of good times and that is what it is all about.”

The good times will continue for Northern Highlands, which will have the home field advantage in the sectional semifinals against Old Tappan. The Highlanders have played two of their best games of the season in their last two state playoff games and it has been a total team effort, as Naughter was quick to point out at game’s end.

“We have two guys in the middle of the field in Abplanalp and Santiago [Raigoza] who are only sophomores and they have figured out that they belong here and they can play. I think Nick Picache up top is as dangerous a kid as we’ve seen. He just gets it and puts the other team on its heels. We don’t have to put 19 passes together and it takes a lot of pressure off us,” said Naughter. “Our center back Alex Sonageri, between him and [keeper] Jake Miller, to have two college level players at the two most important spots on the field, you are going to keep zeroes on the board. We are doing it with a bunch of guys like Rob Garrett, our left back who, if you watched us play a million times, you’d never notice him because he never makes a mistake, never gives the ball away. We are playing as a team and that is what you have to do to be successful in the state tournament.”

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