Friday, November 18, 2011

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Ramapo celebrated the program's fifth outright state championship after its 3-1 win over Timber Creek in the Group 3 state final played on Thursday on the campus of The College of New Jersey.

EWING –It turns out that the knee injury suffered by Mikey Taranto in the Group 3 state semifinal will require surgery and he was unavailable. Senior midfielder Brandon Alvarado was available, albeit he took the field with broken ribs. Ramapo was playing an unfamiliar opponent in unfamiliar surroundings on a field that was longer and wider then any it had played on all season less than 48 hours after withstanding the physical beating that Scotch-Plains-Fanwood tried to dish out on Tuesday. And also as it turned out, none of that was going to stop the Green Raiders.

Banged up but unbowed, Ramapo put two goals away in the first half to take control and never took its foot off the gas on the way to a 3-1 win over Timber Creek in the Group 3 state final on Thursday night at The College of New Jersey. It was the program's first outright state title since 2007 and its fifth overall, tied for ninth most in state history.

James Bounavita gave Ramapo a 1-0 lead by converting a PK nine minutes into the game.

“Yeah, broken ribs but this was my last game and to keep me off the field for this you would have had to have shot me in the head and even then I would have tried to get out there. There was no way I was missing this,” said Alvarado, Ramapo's senior midfielder. “This is it. I am going to remember this for the rest of my life. This will be ingrained in my brain until the day I die.”

The big field played right into Ramapo's strength as its speed up top and in the middle field went with plenty of room to run and it was on display nine minutes in when the Raiders took the lead for good. Sophomore Chris Nash beat a defender along the sideline to give himself an angle to find James Bounavita in the middle of the field at the same time that James Ortiz was blowing past his defender on the other side of the field. When Bounavita slipped him a pass and when Ortiz ran on, he was taken down inside the penalty area. That was the first sign that the game, unlike the semifinal win over Scotch Plains, would be whistled tightly.

As Ramapo head coach Evan Baumgarten put it, “It was like a field hockey game with all of the whistles for both sides.”

That being said, Bounavita converted the PK to put Ramapo up 1-0 with 31:02 showing the scoreboard, which was official.

Chris Nash salutes the crowd after his goal gave Ramapo a 3-0 lead.

“We high-pressured them right from the start and once we started playing I knew we were going to win because we were beating them to every ball,” said Nash. “Once we put the first one in I wasn't worried from there. I knew we would score again and I knew we would get the win.”

One of Ramapo's other advantages was Sean Etheridge's ability to win balls in the air in traffic both in the midfield and in closer. Etheridge was in on every long ball played into the box and he was all over Timber Creek goalkeeper Andrew Garcia at every opportunity. One of those opportunities came in the 24th minute off a serve from the left side by Alvarado and Etheridge flicked it in to give Ramapo the 2-0 lead it took into halftime.

Ramapo's third goal was a total team effort that lasted the full length of the field. It started when Matt Deziel cut off Timber Creek's Michael DeFeo in the right corner and Ian Fayorsey saved the loose ball from going over the end line. Instead of giving up a corner kick, Fayorsey gave a pass up the sideline to Nick Guaglardi, who kept it moving to Nash in the midfield.

As Ramapo assistant coach Jerry Lewis implored Nash to “Use [Ortiz's] speed,” Nash switched the field, lofting a pass into the space in the opposite corner. Ortiz took off after it, Nash continued his run and when Ortiz finally caught up to the ball in the corner having already shaken his defender, he slid a pass back to Nash on the doorstep. All that was left was for Nash to beat Garcia and to salute the crowd after giving the Green Raiders a 3-0 lead with 24:02 left in the game.

Sean Etheridge celebrates after flicking in Ramapo's second goal.

Ramapo had a goal disallowed three minutes later when Guaglardi was ruled offside after a backside run on which he cleaned up a ball shaken loose by another successful Etheridge challenge in the air and it wasn't exactly smooth sailing down the stretch as Timber Creek pushed forward to try to get itself back in the game.

The Chargers did everything right on the way to what looked like it would be their first goal. With just under 13 minutes left, Christian Morgan turned the corner on the right side and forced Ramapo keeper Will Sheil off his line before rolling a low shot that was heading for the inside of the back post. Morgan's shot would have gone in, but instead it was cleared off the line by a hustling Mike O'Brien, who took his weakside responsibility seriously.

Timber Creek did eventually get on the board, but it took about as pretty a play as can be pulled off on the high school level to break up the shutout. With possession about 25 yards from goal and in the middle of the field, DeFeo pooched the ball up to himself and then chipped a serve into the area where Giuseppe DeLuca sprinted in from the left and went airborne for a flying header that darted inside the right post.

That goal came with 7:57 to go and Sheil was called upon one more time to save a DeLuca blast from a bad angle, but the outcome was already clear as Ramapo finished its season with a 22-1 record and a goal differential of 94-10. It was the perfect finish for a near-perfect season for the Green Raiders, who have been to seven state finals and won five of them in 26 years under Baumgarten.

Matt Deziel and the Ramapo defense allowed just 10 goals all season.

“This goes right there with the other ones. Each year had a different set of kids that bought into the water that we drink, put things together and just had a good time. At the end of the day, the field is the best classroom and this year they taught me as many lessons as hopefully I was able to impart on them,” said Baumgarten. “We had a little flash up front. Chris Nash was just tremendous up front with Bounavita giving him balls and everybody just clamping down. Sean Etheridge, James Ortiz tonight...everyone really. It was a team effort and they all drank the Kool-Aid.”

Baumgarten is not the type to give Roy Nygren-esque soliloquies at the end of games. To get the most impassioned summary, one must turn to Deziel, Ramapo's senior sweeper, who will be missed next season not only by the Ramapo program, but also by appreciative reporters who have to fill space on blank pages. This time he went off on the beauty of the continuity of the Green Raiders' program.

“I can't wait to go play in college and then comeback and watch these guys go and try to win another one. The family here is unlike anywhere else I have ever been. The guys coming back to help and coach and play with us just means so much to guys like me and Brandon and everyone else on the field. You just learn from those guys who came before us,” said Deziel, who actually started this paragraph with the words “I am speechless.” “I can't wait to be the next guy to come back and to give back.”

While Deziel, Alvarado and Guaglardi will be missed next season, just about everyone else will be back for another run at a state title. With just one loss, this season will be hard to top, but the bad news for the rest of the state is that Ramapo will have the firepower returning to make a legitimate run at it.

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