By: David Gurney
One hundred twenty yards, 90 minutes, multiple times a week.
The high school soccer season can get very demanding, very quickly.
The legs won’t always be there, the goals may not always come.
But the not-so-secret ingredient to keeping the team close and in the game is a staunch defense.
The South Brunswick High School boys varsity team is finding that out the hard way, on the fly, with a brand new defense being counted on to keep the team afloat when the goals don’t come as easily.
Recently, it has been a mixed bag, with the Vikings (8-1-1) surrendering five goals in two games after allowing only seven the previous seven games before recording a shutout Tuesday against St. Joseph’s, 3-0. But overall, coach Chris Hayston is pleased.
"The guys in the back are making plays when they need to," Hayston said. "The defensive intensity has been there and hopefully they grow and get better. They’re still growing and starting to work together.
"You don’t have success unless you have a steady defense."
The defense has been steady this year, but has hit a road bump lately.
In the two games the Vikings split last week, they edged Piscataway 3-2 at home Thursday before losing for the first time this year, 3-2 at Old Bridge, on Saturday.
In the loss Saturday, SBHS faced an early uphill climb.
Only 10 seconds into the game, Old Bridge’s Sean Davila struck to put the Bulldogs up one. Minutes later, Old Bridge tallied again for a two-goal lead.
Goals by midfielder Kazuki Yamada and forward Zach Zenda kept the Vikings close, but another goal by Old Bridge in the first half made it 3-2, a deficit the Vikings and the defense couldn’t recover from. This, only days after South Brunswick allowed two goals to Piscataway, but one scored by virtue of a questionable foul call that set up a penalty kick.
In the St. Joe’s contest, the Vikings battled lethargy to score three of the game’s final four goals, led by junior forward Troy Confessore’s hat trick.
"The game shouldn’t have been a game that late into the game," Confessore said after the victory. "At halftime we came out and told ourselves we didn’t want this season to get ruined against a team in the division. We came out in the second half fired up and it led to some goals."
Two of those goals came off set pieces, one off a Zenda throw-in and another on a direct kick outside the 18-yard box.
But when the game was in doubt, it was again the defensive unit, led by sweeper Danny Miller, fullbacks Randi Perez, Shane Foley and Chris LaCorte, and stopper Bryan Keller that kept the win intact. A unit that was either playing a reserve role or in another position last season.
"We had no returning varsity defenders that played a starting role last season," Miller said. "Guys like Keller played midfield and a lot of us were playing limited minutes."
For the unit, it’s been a steady improvement from the second game on, a 4-3 victory over Montgomery.
"Ever since the Montgomery game, when we let guys run by us, we’ve been staying with our marks and stayed goal side with them," Miller said. "We’re playing with more intensity and we played with intensity in the second half."
That defense played a huge role in limiting the St. Joseph’s offense this past Tuesday, despite the Falcons’ 17 shots.
The game was tight in the first half before an acrobatic volley by Confessore on a Keller loft in the second half put SB on the board.
The goal was simply too devastating, as SB tacked on two more quickly on goals by Zenda and Confessore buried the Falcons in a hole.
And the defense again took over for the Vikings, and goalie Kevin Gramata made eight saves against a fiery St. Joseph’s offense.
"Everyone thought we were lacking defense this season and teams were going to walk all over us," Miller said. "People didn’t know we had the talent and the great marking backs we have. It hasn’t surprised us with the way we’ve played."

