Thursday, September 22, 2011

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Junior Nicola Nikoloski on the run that set up Leonia's lone goal in its 1-0 win over Dwight-Englewood on Wednesday afternoon.

LEONIA – A team can control the flow of a game, it can own an advantage in possession, pile up more shots on goal, more corner kicks and more dangerous chances, but not of those stats is a sure recipe for success in soccer, a game where a team can win in every category yet still lose a game. Goals scored is the only stats that matters in terms of wins and losses and all of Leonia's statistical advantages did not count as much as one spirited run by one talented offensive player.

With less than six minutes to go in the opening half, Leonia junior Nicola Nikoloski ran on to a bouncing ball on the defensive side of midfield and started his charge. He ran past one defender, got a step on another as just as a third was about to step into his path, Nikoloski laid a pass right on the foot of junior Nilsson Guzman, who only had to touch it into the net for the lone goal in Leonia's 1-0 win over Dwight-Englewood.

“I had to get the ball from our defensive third and brought it all the way through. I gave a through ball to Nilsson and he buried it. That was a much needed goal,” said Nikoloski. “We haven't put away a lot of our chances, but at least they are there and if we keep getting them the goals will come. We just have to keep on working until the ball goes in the net.”

D-E 's Fabian Gonzalez is one of Bergen County's best strikers, but had his touches limited by Leonia.

If Leonia, which now stands at 4-1 this season, has had a problem this early season it has been putting away its chances. It had a 14-0 advantage in corner kicks, but lost a 4-3 overtime decision to Cresskill on Monday in overtime and against Dwight-Englewood they piled up a 10-2 advantage on corners but did not score on a restart, instead needed a 65-yard run through traffic to produce a goal.

“We'll take it anyway we can get it. The kids have been working hard but we are not playing the style that we want yet. We want to possess the ball more and target the forwards more. We are getting pieces of it, but we are not linking enough passes together,” said Leonia head coach Drew Strohmeyer. “We are just not finishing. We had 14 corner kicks against Cresskill and we had 10 again today and we are just not scoring on the set pieces. In the final third we just don't have that killer instinct yet, but hopefully it will come.”

But what Leonia had on Wednesday was an organized defense with one obvious job to accomplish. Dwight-Englewood (3-2) senior Fabian Gonzalez is one of Bergen County's most explosive strikers. He is always the target of long balls played up and always the target of opposing defenses. Leonia used senior Tony Velasquez to man-mark Gonzalez and then sent another defender as soon as he touched the ball.

“Coach [Strohmeyer] told me yesterday that I was going to be man-marking Fabian, I knew he was their No. 1 guy because we played against him last year. He's a tough opponent. He knows what to do with the ball. It's not that he is that fast, but he knows how to beat you,” said Velasquez. “We worked as a team, I had my teammates there helping me when he beat me. I didn't do it alone. I had 10 other guys out on the field with me and we worked as a team.”

Leonia's Nilsson Guzman scored the game's lone goal with just under six minutes left in the first half.

Gonzalez didn't get many chances because of Leonia's advantage in possession and its defensive strategy, but a couple of them were dangerous.

Ten minutes into the first half, Gonzalez spun on a defender in the corner and won the end line. He carried toward the near post and hit what was going to be a tricky cross before it was picked off by Leonia keeper Anthony Reinosa. With 10 minutes to go in the opening half and with the game still scoreless, Gonzalez locked a defender on his back then spun with the ball on his left foot. He took a rip, but it carried just wide left.

“Fabian [Gonzalez] is one of the top players in the league, he is scoring two goals a game and we didn't give him any today. He is going to play at a high D1 level and he had two [goals] on Monday and two against Waldwick. He steps up big,” said Strohmeyer. “Everybody knows that he is the guy to stop and nobody has been able to stop him yet. Our guys did a great job today, we gave Tony Velasquez the responsibility to man-mark him and then we tried to double him as much as we could.”

The second half was played mostly in the midfield and in Leonia's offensive third, but the Lions had only one real dangerous chance to extend their lead. Six minutes into the second half, Fitzroy Walsh stood under a cross sent in by Jeff Eom, only to see his volley skip just wide.

Luke Sherman and the Dwight-Englewood defense gave up just the one goal.

Dwight-Englewood's two best chances to get even came on the same sequence in the 71st minute. With possession in traffic just inside the 18 and to the right, Michael Chen lofted a sneaky chip that forced Reinosa to back pedal and get up just in time to push the ball over the bar. On the resulting corner kick, Reinosa cleared out the back post before going up to take the ball down safely. After that it was a matter of playing keep-away from Gonzalez and closing out the match, which Leonia did to notch an important league win in the NJIC Patriot, which had no clear cut favorite heading into the season and will likely see a league title race right down to the end of the season.

“We want to compete for the league title and if we do that it should qualify us for the state and county tournament and then you see what happens,” said Strohmeyer. “You need a bit of luck with all of it, so hopefully we will stay healthy and the luck will come at the right times.”

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