Tuesday, October 25, 2011

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Eastern Christian's Sarah Gabriele set up the game's lone goal as the Eagles knocked off Park Ridge, 1-0, on Monday afternoon.

PARK RIDGE – With the state tournament starting next week, the last thing the Eastern Christian girls soccer team wanted was to go into the postseason on a losing streak after suffering a 2-0 loss to Pompton Lakes on Friday. It seemed Carly Veenstra’s goal just before halftime would be just the offensive spark the Eagles needed to cruise to victory over Park Ridge on Monday. Instead, they were on their heels for most of the second half and needed a stout defensive effort to get one back in the ‘W’ column.

Veenstra’s goal off a pretty feed from Sarah Gabriele with six minutes to play in the first half stood up as the only goal of the game with Eastern Christian scoring a 1-0 triumph on the road at Park Ridge.

“It was not a pretty win by any means, but it’s still a win and we needed one,” said Eastern Christian head coach Barry Veenstra. “I thought we started off strong, but then we started to play into their hands in the second half. We just couldn’t connect more than one or two passes together. Because of that, they started to gain some momentum and we had to hold them off at the end.”

It looked early on that this could be a blowout in the making with Eastern Christian taking it to the Owls right from the opening whistle. Both Carly Veenstra and Gabriele missed from inside the box in the first 11 minutes before playing off one another to put the Eagles ahead.

Rebecca Skovira nearly got Park Ridge even with a 70-yard run early in the second half.

Gabriele received a pass just in front of the midfield line along the left side and looked to switch fields. When the defense reacted the senior co-captain chipped a perfect pass to the short side of the field. It bent just over the defense and onto the foot of the streaking Carly Veenstra off of an overlapping run. Veenstra, who is one of the top five goal scorers in New Jersey this season, knew what to do with it. She deposited a shot into the lower right-hand corner with 5:58 to play in the half that gave the Eagles a 1-0 halftime lead.

“Once we got that goal, I thought we would be off and running, but it was completely the opposite,” said Barry Veenstra. “Our decision-making was not nearly as good as it was in the first half and they took advantage of it. Park Ridge was playing with a sense of urgency and got us caught flat-footed a few times in the back. Carly (Brantner) had to bail us out a few times back there and we were a little lucky to get out of here with a win today.”

Park Ridge had only one shot in the first half, but doubled that output in the first three minutes of the second half. That included the Lady Owls’ best scoring chance of the game on a fantastic run by Rebecca Skovira. She won a ball in the Owls’ defensive third and dribbled through six defenders on a 70-yard run before cracking a shot from a tough angle that whistled just by the far post.

The Owls did not allow a shot on net after Veenstra’s first-half goal, but they were unable to net the tying goal to force overtime. Nash Birch had the last chance on a 40-yard shot with four minutes to play that was easily saved by Eastern Christian keeper Julie Van Buiten.

Carly Brantner anchored the EC defense that held Park Ridge off for the full 80 minutes.

Brantner was rock solid in the back all game and also pushed up to help create most of the scoring chances for Eastern Christian (14-5-1). Van Buiten made just four saves to earn her 11th shutout of the season. Park Ridge (7-7-1) got four saves from goalie Kristina Bravo along with good performances from Birch, Skovira, and Carly Bargmann.

The Eagles will turn their attention towards the state tournament, where are likely to receive the fifth seed and earn a bye in the first round before a possible meeting with Dwight-Englewood and their Division 1-bound standouts Rachel Cole (Rutgers) and Jessica Lee (Princeton) in the Non-Public B North quarterfinals. The official seeding for the state tournament will be out later this week.

Regardless of who the opponent may be, the Eagles know that time is running short for them to find a rhythm. While they have enough talent to win the section, they also know that they have enough deficiencies that could cause them to be one-and-done.

“We really want to do well in states and today’s game showed we still have some issues that we have to work on,” said Brantner. “I think we’re still not totally adjusted to each other yet. Some days we look great, others we’re not as good. It’s frustrating, but we’ll keep fighting through it.”

“Soccer is a different kind of game because the best team doesn’t always win. We definitely weren’t the best team in the second half today, but we still found a way to win. But if we’re going to go far in states, we have to play a lot better than we did in this game.”

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