Tuesday, September 11, 2007

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Monique Plescia (2) set up the Old Tappan's goal that tied the game and kept the Knights from falling to 0-2 on the season.

OLD TAPPAN -- The Old Tappan girls soccer team had played 159-plus minutes of quality soccer through just about two full games of the young season, but was dangerously close to having nothing to show for it. After a one-goal loss to Ramapo in their season opener, the Golden Knights found themselves on the short side of a 1-0 score with 20 seconds to go in regulation on Monday against Wayne Hills.

But after playing well for most of the game between the 18s, Old Tappan finally got the connection it needed to make some thing happen inside the box and did so with little time to spare.

Monique Plescia ran onto a ball in the midfield and lofted a pass toward the right side of the field where Haruka Kanesaka was making a run. With a defender in the proper position between Kanesaka and the goal near the top corner of the box, it was all the Old Tappan junior could do to get a foot on the ball and knock it toward goal on her first touch.

Victoria Michna's first half goal gave Wayne Hills a lead that it maintained until the final 20 seconds of regulation.

She did that and the result was a perfectly placed chip that bounced once before tucking itself underneath the crossbar just inside the far post. Kanesaka tied the game and the teams played through 20 minutes worth of scoreless overtimes to finish all even at 1-1.

Although both teams earned the same result, it felt almost like a win for Old Tappan (0-1-1), while it was the opposite on the Patriots’ side.

“What can I say, we were 20 seconds away,” said Wayne Hills coach Lona Ozrek. “I thought we had the better opportunities, but their goalie (Colleen Corriston) kept them in the game. Two bang-bang saves [at the start of the second half], and another save right at the end [of the second overtime]; we put any of those away and obviously it is a different outcome.”

The result was better for Old Tappan head coach Tom Quinn, whose team missed the State and County playoffs for the first time in 10 years last season and was staring straight at an 0-2 start to this one before Kanesaka found the net.

“Sometimes with a tie you are not really sure how to feel, but for us in this game with 20 seconds to go to put one in, that is a good feeling,” said Quinn. “These kids deserve something like that to happen because they went through a lot last year.”

Senior Colleen Corriston made at least three difficult saves to keep Old Tappan in the game.

Because there was a junior varsity football game scheduled for the turf field at Old Tappan, the game was played on a grass, which slowed the pace a bit, but both teams were able to put together some quality chances on net.

The first came from Old Tappan’s Brittany Tomasi in the seventh minute when she hit a low liner from the top of the box that Wayne Hills keeper Sam Levine kept out with a diving save to her right.

Wayne Hills (1-0-1) got on the board first in the 14th minute and it came off a corner kick that was knocked out by the Old Tappan defense only to be sent back in and off the crossbar. Victoria Michna was first to the rebound and she headed it home before the defense could adjust.

It was 1-0 at halftime and just two minutes into the second half, the Patriots had two point blank shots on the same sequences that could have stretched the lead, but both were knocked away by Corriston.

Lauren Sullivan had Wayne Hills' final scoring chance, a diagonal shot that was saved late in the second overtime.

“You just have to be convinced that the ball is not going to get past you no matter what happens. As a goalie you know that your team is counting on you,” said Corriston, a senior and first year starter who won the keeper’s job during an open competition in the preseason. “The first shot came from the corner and I got a hand on it and the second went right to their players’ foot, but I just went after it and was able to knock it away.”

There were few chances either way through the first eight minutes of the first overtime before Old Tappan put together a coordinated attack. Sarah Royse started the play in the back and found Kanesaka, who pushed up the right sideline before sending Plescia into the right corner. Plescia's cross to the far post found Deanna Pietro, but her shot was spit out by the Wayne Hills defense.

Plescia also put one off the crossbar just before the end of the first OT and Wayne Hills had its final chance to win it six minutes into the second extra session. Lauren Sullivan had an opening from the top of the box and hit a diagonal shot that was headed for the far post, but it was kept out by the last of Corriston’s eight saves, a diving punch that was also one of her best.

Junior Haruka Kanesaka (14) scored 20 seconds before the end of second half to pull Old Tappan into a tie.

Wayne Hills has been one of the top programs in North Jersey for the last couple of seasons, having reached the North 1, Group 3 state sectional final last year and has plenty of talent back to make another run, starting in the back with Levine (10 saves), stopper Becky Olles and Linda Stambouly and Erica Kunzig, two experienced and gritty defensive minded midfielders. Stambouly, despite giving up at least six inches in height, battled Old Tappan center mid Lisa Jaris to a physical stalemate.

Old Tappan is just trying to earn its way back toward the top of the NBIL, which is by far the toughest league top to bottom in North Jersey if not the state. There are few if any easy games on the league schedule, which makes rebuilding in the NBIL a monumental task.

“We just have to be ready everyday to work hard and keep going for it,” said Jaris, OT’s lone captain. “We’ve improved so much and everyone is so excited for this season to improve upon last season, so we can’t look at the league schedule and we intimidated, we just have to be ready to go.”

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