Sayreville boys prepare to play winner in GMC tourney
BY WARREN RAPPLEYEA Staff Writer
After tightening its defense, the Sayreville High School boys soccer team enters the Greater Middlesex Conference (GMC) Tournament seeded sixth as it prepares to meet the winner of yesterday's match between Piscataway and New Brunswick.

"We've won the games I thought we should win," said coach Nick Cifelli. "Otherwise we've been in every game; we just haven't been able to close the deal."

The Bombers, 9-6 overall, struggled a bit early in the season, as their defense was uncharacteristically porous. Fortunately, that has changed, and over Sayreville's last five games, opponents have been able to score just five goals.

During the regular season, Sayreville defeated both Piscataway and New Brunswick twice and also scored important wins over South Plainfield and Woodbridge. Five of the Bombers' six losses, however, were one-goal affairs.

"Defense is so important in the tournaments," said Cifelli, whose team has also qualified for the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV playoffs. "Our defense has steadily improved, but we need them to continue playing well. When we get the lead, we need to be able to hold it."

Holding leads could be key, because the Bombers have plenty of offensive firepower. Sophomore forward Kene Eze has dominated up front, scoring 24 goals to go with two assists and is now the team's career scoring leader with 40 goals. Lamin Sidibeh previously held the mark with 36 career tallies.

Forward Luis Jiminiz has scored five goals, including a pair of game-winners. Midfielder Matt Welna has posted two goals and eight assists while doing a stellar job of moving the ball up the field.

"We have a lot of goals, but opponents are keying on Kene [Eze], and while he's still scoring we need someone else to step up and take some of the pressure off him," Cifelli said. "I expect the opposition to pay even more attention to Kene in the tournaments, so the opportunities will be there for others to score."

In the middle, junior Tinashe Muwalo has done a good controlling the flow. Michael Batko, P.J. Gary and Sean Mosser have also played well. Sean Sullivan and freshman Kyle Santos provide plenty of quality minutes off the bench.

Sweeper Michael Weber and fullbacks Ryan Reed, Scott Monaghan, Chris Pokrywa and Josh Rios lead the improved defense. Junior Mitchell Pokrywa has seen the bulk of action in goal since Bryan Miksiewicz suffered a concussion two weeks ago. Cifelli noted that Miksiewicz has just returned to the lineup.

"Whoever wins that game is going to come right after us," Cifelli said. "So we have to be ready. The good thing is we'll be playing on our home field, but our guys still have to execute. It will come down to our defense continuing to get it done and, hopefully, we can get a little more balance offensively. Our guys have been looking forward to this all season, now's their chance to show how good they are."

Sayreville will enter the GMC contest relatively healthy. The Bombers were also slated to meet East Brunswick on Wednesday in their final regular-season game.