HHS boys’ soccer has to regroup from losses

By: Sean Moylan
   While every coach should expect to lose some players to graduation each year, the 2006 Hightstown Rams boys’ varsity soccer team took one of the biggest hits in recent memory with the graduation of 14 players and the loss of two other players who played regular varsity minutes.
   But the defending CVC Valley Division champs didn’t lose just regular players, they graduated a pair of Adidas All-Americans in Ben Harms, who is now a forward for the Princeton Tigers Men’s soccer team, and Jamal Neptune, who is a defender for Hofstra’s soccer team. Furthermore, last year’s Hightstown Athlete of the Year, Dan Indellicati, is now playing soccer for Iona University. Hightstown also lost Nick Byrne, Erik Crawford, Michael Demko, Ryan Franzo, Ian Humphrey, Mike Jaramillo, Paul Ojeda, Brendan Pinheiro, Juan Ramos and Spencer Zlatin. And Ryan Donelan is injured and out for the season.
   "Out of 55 goals we scored last year, we lost the players who scored 50 of them," said Dominic Mastroianni, the head coach of the Hightstown’s boys’ varsity soccer team. But the good news is Hightstown has been down this road before and it survived and later thrived. In fact, the Rams went through it a few years ago with the group they just graduated.
   "The group that graduated last season was a work in progress for four years," said Mastroianni, whose team was 13-5-2 last season and fell to Hopewell in a 2-1 Central Jersey semifinal game.
   Nevertheless, Hightstown does have three very good captains in Tommy Fallon (a senior striker), Zack Brenman (a junior defender) and Kyle Thornley (a senior midfielder).
   "Tommy Fallon is one of the ones I’m counting on to do (the bulk of the scoring)," added Mastroianni, who was careful to pick a captain for each separate unit (frontline, midfield, and defense) on the field. But Hightstown will definitely play a team game.
   "It’s a whole team thing with us," said Mastroianni, who was beginning to see some progress in last week’s scrimmages. "We’re just working on controlling the ball."
   Chris LoBianco, Hightstown’s senior goalkeeper, worked very hard over the summer to improve his game. Moreover Alan Joseph, a junior midfielder, has the skill to develop into a competent scorer and junior Derek Pinhiero is a solid defender. This year, Nikolai Aranasserknr (a senior defender), Kyle Bini (a senior midfielder), Nick Caravella (a senior defender), William Duffy (a senior defender), Ahmed Hameed (a senior defender), Israel Delgado (a junior midfielder), Steve Grill (a junior midfielder), Adam Henrey (a junior goalkeeper), Robert Kearn (a junior defender), Matt Nolan (a junior defender), Hector Pucar (a junior striker), Bryan Worth (a junior striker), Josh Cullen (a sophomore striker), Alex Kabek (a sophomore forward) and Eli Hernandez (a sophomore defender) will all see action for the Rams’ varsity team.
   Although the Rams are inexperienced they did not alter their always tough schedule in any way. In fact, Hightstown has three sets of back-to-back games. Tim Kalick is Mastroianni’s assistant this year, but last year’s assistant, Roger Weck, was kind enough to come out of retirement do some volunteer work with the varsity and Willie Hernandez’ junior varsity club. Weck will be able to tell Mastroianni when someone is ready to play varsity.
   "He (Weck) is going to be the person who is tying it all together for me," said the longtime Hightstown head coach. "We want to stay competitive. Last year I had 20 (good varsity players). Right now, we’re about 12 deep that I can count on. .500 would be an immense success for these kids."
   Hightstown is scheduled to open its season at Nottingham today (Friday). It is scheduled at West Windsor-Plainsboro North on Tuesday and it is scheduled to host Steinert on Thursday.