By Mike White
Staff Writer
The Jackson High School boys’ soccer team is one step closer to winning a Shore Conference Tournament title.
The Jaguars defeated visiting Wall High School 3-1 Monday afternoon in an SCT quarterfinal match-up.
The Jaguars, who improved to 13-2 overall, met Monsignor Donovan, a 2-1 winner over Red Bank, in the semifinals Wednesday at Raritan High School. The other semifinal pitted CBA against Brick Memorial.
"This is the first time since I’ve been coaching here that our team has advanced this far in this event," Jackson’s fourth-year coach Fred Napoli said. "I think it is a tribute to how hard the kids have worked for this. But we still need to remain focused."
Jackson took control of the game early, registering two first-half goals.
The Jaguars scored their third goal early in the second half before Wall’s offense could get on track.
Ryan Mogila, Chris McBride and Nick Gkionis scored for Jackson. Doug Rodkey added an assist.
"We had played them in the preseason, but you can’t really get a feel for how good a team is under those circumstances," said Gkionis, whose goal came off a penalty kick. "We expected them to be a tough team. Our team has been playing well together for awhile. Our defense has done a good job of creating scoring opportunities for the offense by getting the ball down field."
Jackson outshot Wall by an 18-12 margin. The Jags got a solid effort from goalie Nick Lyons, who made eight saves.
In a 5-3 second-round win over Middletown South last Saturday, Mike Materia scored a pair of goals. Gkionis, Rob Kane and Jamel Carson each scored one as the Jaguars netted three second-half goals to post the victory.
"These guys just haven’t quit during a game all season," Napoli said. "They play hard every single minute of every game. This was a very physical game. We did a good job of playing defense and made the most of the opportunities we got on offense."
Middletown South’s Tom Gray scored two goals. Napoli knew marking up on Gray would be a key for the Jackson defense.
"That kid is a great player," Napoli said. "I thought we did a pretty good job of containing him."
Jackson led 2-1 at the half. Middletown South knotted the game at 3-3 on a goal by Gray with 15:15 remaining in the contest.
But the Jaguars responded with two unanswered goals to seal the win. Materia scored his second of the game off a corner kick. Doug Rodkey lofted a shot into the top of the box. Materia came up with the loose ball and blasted a shot past Middletown South goalie Brian Hessinger to give Jackson a 4-3 lead with 13:21 left.
Carson added the insurance goal late in the game. Carson took a pass from Kane and chipped a shot past Hessinger to secure the win.
"We played our game today," Gkionis said. "We played the kind of soccer we need to in order to beat teams like this."
As the second seed in the SCT, the Jaguars were viewed as the team with the best chance of knocking off No. 1 CBA. However, the while the Jaguars have looked every bit like a high seed, the Colts have struggled in each of their SCT games. They survived a shoot-out against Ocean on Monday (4-3) to earn their semifinal berth, and staggered a bit entering the postseason.