Team edges Brearley at home
By: John E. Powers
At times, the Manville High School boys’ soccer team can beam with confidence. At others, the Mustangs look out of sync, trying to find themselves as they grow from game to game.
The Mustangs (3-5-1) experienced both sides last week, a week in which they sandwiched a very impressive win between two shutout losses against winning clubs.
Thursday afternoon, the young Mustangs played with confidence in building a 3-1 lead against David Brearley of Kenilworth before withstanding a late Bear charge to win 3-2. Sophomore midfielder Dan Worobij gave Manville a 3-1 lead on a long shot at the 26:38 mark that curled behind Brearley goalie Kyle Hrynkiewicz. Saturday, the Mustangs played without the suspended Mirek Dziwak and injured Pawel Herdzik and lost a 4-0 battle at North Plainfield in the Somerset County Tournament.
The Mustangs pulled to within just one game of the .500 mark with the win over Brearley, which had its six-game winning streak snapped. The Bears, who had only lost to New Providence, fell to 7-2.
The Mustangs maintained possession of the ball, sustained their concentration levels and kept the play in the Brearley zone for most of the game. Herdzik, who would miss the North Plainfield game with a leg injury, and sophomore Erick Jimenez had the first two goals, while Jimenez assisted on the other two. Gennaro DeCarlo had the other assist.
Both Herdzik and Worobij scored on long shots that fooled Hrynkiewicz.
"It was my first goal ever, it was a pretty lucky shot, I just took it down the line and got lucky,” Worobij said. "I just had a little on him. I got lucky and just beat the kid. I got lucky and it went into the corner. It was very similar to the first goal we scored.”
Brearley pulled to within 3-2 with just over a minute left when senior Eloy Kobluk beat goalie Ed Martinez. Then, not long after, a scramble in front of Martinez forced him to come out to chase the ball down before senior Jeremy Eger could get what could have been a clean shot at the net. Even with the late craziness, Manville coach Javier Velasco called the effort the best performance the team has had this year.
"Definitely, I thought it was our best,” Velasco said. "A good example was the New Providence and North Plainfield (both 3-1 losses, that the team trailed just 1-0 at halftime) games. We played well in the first half, but we didn’t finish it. Today, we played pretty well for 90 minutes. We were a little sloppy at the end, they put a lot of pressure on us. But that happens in the course of a game, that’s normal. I think if we play like we did today for the rest of our games, we will be OK. We’re going to win some games.”
Velasco called the second and third goals "lucky.” Jimenez had a header.
"That’s a tough team, I told them that Brearley was going to be a tough team, they were going to be physical,” the coach said.
The team was coming off a 3-0 loss to Bound Brook. That performance led Velasco to make a couple of moves. He switched Landy Rodriguez from midfield to sweeper, while he moved Sebastian Brozyna up from defense to midfield.
"We had some sloppy play by the sweepers against Bound Brook. Two mistakes led to two goals,” Velasco said.
A late first half goal by North Plainfield put the Mustangs on their heels Saturday afternoon. North Plainfield, at 7-3-2, was a No. 10 seed, while the Mustangs were ranked 15th in the county draw.
The Mustangs weren’t so lucky against the Canucks. Jimenez hit the post with a shot, then nearly scored off a header.
"We had our chances, but couldn’t finish them, but really they just played a lot better than us,” Velasco said.