Tuesday, November 2, 2011

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Kelly Crevani stood up to a withering Paramus attack in the final five minutes to help Old Tappan hang on for a 1-0 win in the opening round of the North 1, Group 1 state sectional playoffs.

OLD TAPPAN – The clock was winding down in the second half and the Northern Valley/Old Tappan girls soccer team was in a familiar position. The Golden Knights were holding on, trying to protect a lead in the waning moments as their opponent, in this case Paramus in the opening round of the North 1, Group 3 state sectional tournament, was living inside the 18-yard box doing anything and everything it could to find a way to knock in the equalizing goal.

“We are in a lot of these games. This is not the first time we have been defending like crazy the last 10 minutes to win a game. That is just the way it is with us,” said Old Tappan head coach Tom Quinn. “With the schedule we play, more often than not we are defending at the end to win a game rather than pushing up to try to win a game. We are used to this.”

Having been there before did not necessarily make it easy this time around, but Old Tappan was not overwhelmed by the moment. Despite some quality Paramus chances down the stretch, the eighth-seeded Golden Knights held on for a 1-0 win over a team that Old Tappan had lost to during the regular season.

Paramus striker Sarah Cortes generated plenty of quality chances late in the game.

“It's totally nerve-wracking and I had to keep my concentration. It's hard to stay focused when so much is going on,” said Kelly Crevani, Old Tappan's junior keeper who was in the middle of the pressure cooker for the final five-plus minutes. “I am still like mind-blocked from all that went on, I don't really remember everything that happened, but I knew we had to hold on. This is a huge win for us and we are really excited to move on.”

Much of the first 30 minutes of the game was played in the midfield as Paramus was intent on stopping the dangerous runs of Old Tappan junior Raba Nasif and the Knights were intent on doing the same against the Spartans' dangerous striker Sarah Cortes, who set up the game's first quality scoring chance.

In the 23rd minute she made a run up the left side and drew two defenders her way. Before the second one arrived Cortes centered a pass for senior Alyssa Poplaski, who had room just inside the 18, but her shot sailed wide to the right. Five minutes later, Old Tappan generated put together a rush that led to a golden opportunity.

Old Tappan junior Hannah LaFronz drew some extra attention and as she sliced her way up the middle of the field before slipping a pass on the left to Ryann Burke, who was making a diagonal run.

Ryann Burke scored with 8:05 left in the first half and it stood up as the game-winner for Old Tappan.

Burke took on a defender right at the corner of the 18 and withstood the contact that came with it before collecting the ball as the goalie charged out. Burke waiting an extra half-second before rolling her shot into the center of the goal to give Old Tappan the 1-0 lead with 8:05 to go before halftime.

“Hannah and I just saw the defender coming at me and I tried to make a move. Once I got past her I saw the goalie coming at me and I knew I had to get rid of it. And then it just went in.” said Burke. “You just need that motivation to let you know that you can win and getting that first goal just got us going.”

It's not like Old Tappan put 11 in the box after it went ahead as the Knights continued to target Nasif going forward, but their midfielders were a little more cautious in joining in secondary roles and Paramus started to take over the possession game. The final shot total was 12-4 in favor of the Spartans and they almost got even in spectacular fashion in the 38th minute when Lauren Fiorino's cross from from the left side was met with a back-heel volley attempt by Amanda Koutsis that missed just wide left.

The momentum continued in Paramus' favor into the second half with Old Tappan taking a defend-first-counter-attack-later approach to protecting its lead. That was made a little easier with the presence if Vivian Eisenberg, Old Tappan's senior defender who was injured when Old Tappan lost to Paramus, 4-2, back on September 22.

A Lauren Fiorino serve almost led to a Paramus goal just before halftime.

“We didn't have Vivian Eisenberg the first time we played Paramus and I think that was a huge difference because she is our best bet to cover these top players that we have to play all the time and she played great,” said Quinn. “That was how was how we had to try to beat this team. To win we knew we were going to have to do it 1-0 or 2-0. There was no way we could have outscored them.”

Eisenberg drew the task of man-marking Cortes for most of the 80 minutes, switching off with Nikole Rizzo for short stretches, and while she did not hold the Spartans' top scoring threat without any opportunities, she did make Cortes work for each one.

“It really tough, but I just had to try to stay with her and I knew she was an intimidating player,” said Eisenberg. “I had to stick with her and keep going no matter what. Even if I lost my breath I had to keep going because I knew that I couldn't let her even get one [open shot] because in this game that was all it would take to tie it up.”

When Cortes did break through her minders 14 minutes into the second half, she found herself in a foot race with Crevani as the ball took a high hop and was up for grabs. The two came together, but it was Crevani who used her feet to punt the ball out of trouble just as Cortes arrived. Old Tappan's last real chance to double its lead came in the 62nd minute when Burke sent Nasif into a crowd in the middle and Nasif bullied her way through a defender and into the area. Nasif got off a shot in traffic, but it was saved and the just about all of the final 18 minutes was played on the Paramus offensive half and much of that time even deeper.

Raba Nasif and Old Tappan have won 7 of their last 8 games.

Inside the final five minutes, Poplaski volleyed a ball just high of the crossbar and with just over one minute to play Cortes locked a defender on her back deep on the right side then spun and got off a rip that was closed down at the near post by Crevani.

When the final whistle finally blew, Old Tappan had the latest win in what has been a solid season for the Golden Knights. Of their seven losses, four of them have come to Northern Highlands and Ramapo, two of the top teams in the state and the two finalists in the Bergen County Tournament. After winning a game in the Bergen County Tournament, the Knights were knocked out by IHA, which at the time was the four-time defending champion. Paramus, a Bergen County quarterfinalist, and Northern Valley/Demarest accounted for the other two losses. Old Tappan has now won 7 of its last 8 games.

“We were 5-6 when we lost to IHA in the second round of the counties and now we are 12-7,” said Quinn, whose team will play the winner of the first round match between top-seeded Highlands and No. 16 Montville. “You play those games early and you fight and you fight and you fight and you get better as it goes. I don't like to compare with other leagues and the perceptions of rankings, I never do that, but we are a tough out and when teams have to play us they know they have to play hard.”

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