Friday, October 14, 2011

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Hubert Dull scored in the first half to give Wallington the lead for good in a 2-1 win over Hasbrouck Heights on Thursday afternoon.

HASBROUCK HEIGHTS – Even though it did not always have a soccer team, Wallington has long been a soccer town. So when the boys soccer program started up in 1999 it was a meteoric rise from infancy to Group 1 dominance. The Panthers have been to seven state sectional finals and they have won the last two, but the logical conclusion might have been that last season's run had to be the peak. Wallington won 23 of the 25 game it played and topped it off with the school's first-ever outright Group 1 state championship, but with the playoffs' end came the end of the brilliant high school careers of Tomek Kwiatkowski, a goal-scoring machine, and Konrad Plewa, one of the most complete players in Bergen County and six other seniors.

Instead, what the graduation of those two players has shown is that Wallington is much more than a typical Group 1 team that rises and falls with the fortunes of a few players in any given class. What Wallington is is a quality program that regenerates itself with quality players who pick up for those that have come before.

With its 2-1 win on the road at Hasbrouck Heights on Thursday, the Panthers all but locked up the NJIC Meadowlands B Division title and improved to 13-2 on the season heading into the Bergen County quarterfinals where they will play top-seeded Ramapo after knocking off Group 3 Paramus in the Round of 16 last Sunday.

Dylan Colombo lining up the shot that got Heights back even at 1.

“You have to adjust. Konrad [Plewa] was probably the best player in Wallington High School history and Tomek could score at any time, but with the guys we have here we just had to adjust and carry on,” said Michael Kubik, Wallington's junior midfielder. “Everyone has had to take on more responsibility both offensively and defensively and we still have things to work on here and there, but overall this year has been good so far.”

One of the players who has stepped up offensively is midfielder Hubert Dul, a three-year varsity player who got the Panthers going on Thursday. He scored the lone goal of the first half by taking advantage of some space, a rare opportunity in the tight confines of Hasbrouck Heights' home pitch where goalies can just about punt from 18 to 18 and about 10 paces is all that separates the edge of the penalty area from the boundary line.

“I got the ball right about at the 30 [yard line] and I decided to dribble because I saw some space that I was not expecting,” said Dul, a junior who is in his third season on the varsity level. “I used the space to get through and I shot with my left foot. It went off the post and into the goal.”

Matt Jeziorek scored in the 51st minute to put Wallington up 2-0.

Because its own home field is, let's just say, also 'less than regulation size' Wallington is used to playing in tight spaces and it is adept at moving the ball along the ground. The Panthers know nothing of kick-and-run, instead they knock the ball around until they can find an opportunity to put the ball on someone's foot moving forward. That is what happened 11 minutes into the second half when Kubik made an over-lapping run up the left and then forced the defense to make a decision. When Kubik won the endline and drew numerous white shirts, he slipped the ball along the ground to a wide open Matt Jeziorek, who finished from inside the 6 for a 2-0 Wallington lead.

That left Hasbrouck Heights in scramble mode and the Aviators had plenty of incentive to get back in the game. After starting the season with six wins in its first eight games and qualifying for the Bergen County Tournament, Heights had lost three in a row coming in. The Aviators were trying to stay close in the league title race and also pick up some power points over a 10-win team with two games left before the cutoff for the state tournament.

Enter senior Dylan Colombo, who ran onto a pass from Chris Bini 22 yards from the goal and then buried it in the bottom left corner with his left foot to get Heights right back in it at 2-1 with 22 minutes to play in the game. Heights kept the pressure on for the next for minutes as in that span Thomas Blo saw his solid hit from 25 yards curl just over the bar, Colombo saw his line drive taken in by the body of Wallington keeper David Podlesiecki and Gabe Toledo hooked a volley around a defender that ended just outside the left post.

Roland Gomez made a couple of tough saves to keep Heights in the game.

Wallington used the final 10 minutes to play keep-way and Heights fell to 6-6 on the season heading into Friday's matchup against New Milford.

“The first time we played Wallington early in the year we were up 2-0 on them and they came back and ended up beating us in the final two minutes and we kept after them again today. I am not going to say that it is a rivalry situation, but Wallington is a team that you get up for every time you play them because of their success,” said Hasbrouck Heights head coach Vincent Marchese. “For us it has been a matter of consistency. We have been playing up-and-down ball. We get up for the big games and and against teams that we should not necessarily beat, but have a chance to do well against, we struggle. It's been a constant battle all year.”

Wallington is in for a battle on Sunday when it moves into the Bergen County quarterfinals against top-seeded and unbeaten Ramapo, ranked No. 3 in the state by the Star Ledger. The two teams met in the same round last season with Ramapo coming away with a 4-0 win. The Green Raiders hung eight goals on Queen of Peace in the Round of 16 last week and will present a lot of problems for Wallington's backline.

Michael Kubik and Wallington will get a shot at Ramapo in the Bergen County quarterfinals.

“I think the first thing that we have to do, and I saw some problems with this today, is to defend responsibly. That is the first focus and then we will see what we can get going forward,” said Wallington head coach Mike Fromfield. “The big problems against them last year were transition, their set pieces and their long throws. Our focus between now on Sunday will to get better against those things and see where that takes us.”

Wallington will be the underdog, for sure, but it is also a talented side with a now well-established winning tradition. And stranger things have happened.

“We are the underdogs, we know that, but everyone is pumped for the game and we are going to play hard,” said Kubik. “When you get into a tournament, any team has a chance to go out there and win. We are going to stay positive and hope the result goes our way.”

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