Saturday, November 7, 2009

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Ryan Walsh is mobbed by teammates after his goal late in the second half gave Old Tappan the lone tally of its second straight state tourney upset, a 1-0 win at Passaic Valley.

LITTLE FALLS – After the biggest upset in school history, a shootout win over Ramapo in the first round of the North 1, Group 3 state tournament earlier this week, the Northern Valley/Old Tappan boys soccer team could have hung its hat on that win and considered its season a success. But with that win came two intangibles came with that win that that worked in the Golden Knights’ favor moving forward. One was that if that they could beat one of North Jersey’s best teams, they knew that they have what it takes to beat anyone. The second development was that, as the lowest seed remaining in any section in the entire state, there was absolutely no pressure on the Knights as they set out in search of another upset.

That search led Old Tappan to Little Falls on Friday and the run continues. Ryan Walsh scored the game’s only goal with less than 13 minutes to play, and the 15th-seeded Knights survived the final 12 minutes playing a man down and without their starting goaltender to pull another stunning upset, this time with a 1-0 win over seventh-seeded Passaic Valley.

Passaic Valley nearly took the lead shortly before Old Tappan went ahead for good.

Passaic Valley was coming in off of an equally thrilling victory, a 3-2 overtime win over Parsippany Hills in the first round. But neither team could muster any offense in the first half and well into the second, as both defenses dominated the game.

The Hornets nearly took the lead with 20 minutes to play off of a corner kick from Dom Capone. The ball bounced around in the box and Passaic Valley had two cracks at the net from six yards out. The first was stopped by keeper Ryan Belen. Already on the ground at the back post, sweeper Chris Caserta blocked the rebound attempt from point-blank range with Belen then grabbing the ball to avert the Hornets’ most dangerous scoring chance of the game.

“The only thing you think about in that situation is getting the ball out of there any way you can do it,” said Caserta. “Once we survived that, we felt pretty confident that we could win.”

After a long throw-in from Sean Reilly, the Hornets attempted to clear their zone. Tony Kim intercepted the clearing attempt and centered a ball back into the box. Walsh was right there to re-direct it past Passaic Valley keeper Mike Libucha and into the net for a 1-0 Old Tappan lead with 12:49 to play.

Chris Caserta (left) assisted on Old Tappan's goal.

“I saw the ball coming my way and just wanted to get a good touch on it,” said Walsh. “When I watched it go in, I was just really excited. I thought we were on our way to another win, but it all changed in the next minute.”

Actually, it took just 23 seconds before the complexion of the game changed and the Hornets had the momentum. After a brief shoving match between players, a Passaic Valley player and an Old Tappan player were both inexplicably given red cards. Then, while sitting on the ground waiting to see how it all played out, Belen was shown a red card, which brought both coaches out onto the field for an explanation. After a 10-minute delay, the red cards were all changed to yellow cards. But for some reason, Belen was not allowed back into the game and the Golden Knights were forced to play a man down for the final 12:26.

“I really had no idea what was going on, but we had to keep our heads and we couldn’t afford any more cards,” said Reilly, the Old Tappan midfielder. “We still had the lead and we played great defense all game. We just had to stay calm and keep doing what we were doing all game.”

Freshman keeper Liam Jaris came in cold in the final moments to seal the shutout for Old Tappan.

It was an unenviable task for backup goaltender Liam Jaris, who had to come off the bench cold and jump into the heat of the final minutes of a state tournament game. But the freshman was up to the task, making two saves and punching away Capone’s corner kick in the final minute to help the Golden Knights hang on for their second straight upset.

Old Tappan will look to keep its upset-laden run going against an NBIL foe. The Knights will travel to face sixth-seeded Northern Highlands, which advanced yesterday with a 1-0 win over Wayne Valley. Northern Highlands beat Old Tappan twice this season, by 1-0 and 4-0 scores. But a lot more is at stake this time and the Golden Knights are out to show that they are not the same team they were earlier in the season.

“This has all been really exciting and we all believe in each other that we can win games,” added Reilly. “All the pressure is off of us and we are playing with a lot of confidence. We know Northern Highlands is a tough team and they beat us twice already. But we feel we can play with anyone with the way we’re playing right now and we have nothing to lose, so we’re just going to go for it and see how far we can go.”

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