Sayreville, O.B. to do battle today

Local teams stay alive in conference

tournament play

BY WARREN RAPPLEYEA

Staff Writer

After winning opening-round matches on Tuesday, Old Bridge and Sayreville boys soccer teams will get together this afternoon to square off in the Greater Middlesex Conference (GMC) Tournament quarterfinals.

Old Bridge (10-5) lost its home field advantage when Geick Park was declared unfit to play on, but downed J.P. Stevens, 1-0, in Edison to up its mark to 10-5 and reach the semis.

John Leone took a pass from Dave Delucia and scored for the eighth time this season as goalie Chris Reardon picked up his seventh shutout.

Sayreville, meanwhile, hosted South Plainfield in a contest that went right down to the wire. The Bombers (12-4-2) were behind, 1-0, until Tim Quartararo scored to even things up off a nice pass from Jeff Craig.

Senior Trini Flavaney, who moved to midfield from forward this year, netted the game-winner with just 90 ticks remaining on the clock, with Craig picking up his second assist.

The Old Bridge-Sayreville match will be a battle of two strong defensive teams that keep things tight and rely on opportunistic offenses to win.

The Bombers are also playing without talented senior goalie Rob Galante, who suffered a season-ending knee injury two weeks ago. Coach Nick Cifelli turned to sophomore Larry Pokrywa, who has done the job, recording a 1.00 goals against average in the four-plus games he’s played.

Cifelli noted that the defense, Michael Ratajczyk, Pete Wonaszek, Brian Nowicki and Keith Woods have picked it up a notch to help the new goalie.

"I’ve seen Old Bridge play, and they’re a good team," Cifelli said. "They remind me of us. They play smart, and they keep coming at you."

The athletic Reardon, meanwhile, anchors the Old Bridge defense, along with stopper Neil Christiana and sweeper Tim Lucas, with help from Tom Valentino, Eric Rothy and Jim Phillips.This group will have to defend against Craig, who leads Sayreville with eight goals and 10 assists; Quartararo (6, 3), freshman Lamin Sidebeh (5, 3) and Flavaney (5, 3).

Besides Leone, Old Bridge’s front line includes Ray Reyes (5, 2), Will Dwornikowski (5, 2) and Dan Gallata (1, 2). Midfielders Lucas (4, 3), Delucia (2, 3), Keith McIntyre (1, 1) and Andrew Vodofsky (0, 4) also contribute.

"Our scoring is pretty spread out," Knights coach Rich Mould said. "Our guys know they have a good team and they want to show it. Sayreville is a good team, too.

"They’ve done a great job after losing their goalie [Galante]. That’s a highly regarded team, and we have to beat them to be recognized."

Both Sayreville and Old Bridge have also qualified for the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV playoffs, where they could end up meeting again in an early round, as their records are similar.

Notes... Elsewhere in boys GMCT ac­tion, the top-ranked East Brunswick Bears are rolling along, after blanking Middlesex, 7-0, in their second-round game.

Zach Simi recorded three goals and an assist to lead the Bears, while Evan Lubcher had two goals and three assists. Ricky Laskay and Josh Bransdorfer also scored for E.B., who will face ninth-seeded South Brunswick, a 1-0 overtime winner over Highland Park, later today in the quarterfinals.

The sixth-seeded Monroe Falcons got a John Jenson goal three minutes into the second overtime on Tuesday to knock off the 1th-seeded South River Rams, and advance to today’s quarterfinal round where they will meet third-seeded St. Joseph’s.

The Rams came out firing and took the halftime lead after freshman Max Melo found the back of the net, then padded their lead in the second half on a quick goal from Alford Noal. But Monroe senior Justin Miller notched the Falcons’ first goal 12 minutes into the second half, and then tied the game just four minutes later.

Jensen’s game-winner came off a pass from senior Tyler Chiara.

The other quarterfinal match-up today will have second-seeded Colonia, a 4-0 winner over JFK on Tuesday, hosting 10th-seeded North Brunswick, who knocked off seventh-seeded New Brunswick, 2-1, on Tuesday.

Today’s winners will advance to Sat­urday’s semifinal round, which will be held at the home of the higher seed. The finals are set for Nov. 9 at J.P. Stevens High School.

In girls GMCT action, all of the local teams were scheduled to be in action yes­terday in second-round play.

The top-ranked Old Bridge Knights were set to take on 16-seeded J.P. Stevens, while the second-ranked East Brunswick Bears were matched up with No. 15 Bishop Ahr.

No. 4 Monroe was set to host 13th-seeded JFK, with No. 5 Sayreville hosting No. 12 Metuchen.

Spotswood, the eighth seed, drew No. 9 Middlesex, while South River, the 11th seed, was set to travel to No. 6 North Brunswick.