By: Kyle Moylan
With a 2-0 win over Nottingham on Tuesday, October 10, the Allentown High School boys’ soccer team clinched a spot in the NJSIAA playoffs.
"It’s a big step for us," Allentown coach Tigana Dalce noted. "I know people at the school were talking about it. From what I heard, the team hadn’t made it in four or five years."
To his credit, Dalce came in as a first-year coach, saw the players in practice and knew the team would make it this far. If anything, Dalce doesn’t believe the current 8-5-1 record is indicative of how good Allentown is as a team.
"We’re a better team than the record shows," Dalce said. "The record should be much, much better."
Dalce was disappointed to see the record slip with two losses late last week. Piero Mancini scored both goals for Allentown in a 5-2 loss to West Windsor North.
"That day we just didn’t play well," Dalce said. "Our defense is usually much better. That’s the first time a team I’ve coached let in five goals."
Even so, the more disappointing loss was 1-0 to Princeton Day School.
"That was a disaster," Dalce said. "That’s a game we’re not supposed to lose."
Fortunately, Allentown has a chance to play much more important games than those two. It earned that right with its win over Nottingham. Ryan Provost and Brendan Smith scored the goals. Conner Darrell recorded the shutout in goal.
"He (Darrell) has been playing pretty well for us," Dalce said, noting the West Windsor North was one of the few time his goalie has struggled.
Allentown’s game on Monday against Hamilton is being rescheduled. Allentown was scheduled to face Hopewell this past Tuesday night. It will be at Hightstown for a 4 p.m. start today.
"I don’t care if we’re schedule every day, I want to play," Dalce said. "We’re trying to win everything we have left to get into the playoffs with some momentum, a winning mentality."
Of course, a playoff berth is a huge step in the right direction.
"I’m hard and tough on the guys, but I don’t think they know why I’m like that," Dalce said. "I’m used to seeing the game played at a high level and I want the guys to be like that. My expectations are high.
"The beginning is hard. That’s okay. I don’t like to get things easy. I want to build them myself, make players my way. I’m going to keep working. We’re going to keep working. Making the playoffs is a big step, but we can do more. We have the talent."
NEHS
Even with a pair of wins to close out action last week, the New Egypt High boys’ soccer team doesn’t have enough games left on the schedule to make the state playoffs.
"I would absolutely love for the season to last a little longer, but this was something I expected," New Egypt Coach Sam Palumbo said. "We just have so many newcomers. There’s nothing you can do but keep building the rest of the season and starting strong next year."
New Egypt did that last week with wins over Florence and Mercer Christian.
With Florence needing to get games in for its pursuit for a playoff berth, the two teams elected to play in heavy rain back on Wednesday, October 11.
Kevin Stiles and Mike Bette both scored first-half goals for New Egypt. Rob Brown and Rick Mackesy had assists. And it was a good thing that New Egypt scored early because there wasn’t a late.
"It was an interesting game," Palumbo said. "I don’t think anyone else finished a game that day. The field was a lake. It was in a downpour. The game was delayed for 30 minutes and the field got worse. In the middle of the game the official stopped it. And once you played a half, that’s it. Never in my years have I seen that before. We wanted to continue the game. Obviously, Florence wanted to continue. For safety reasons, the officials stopped the game."
In other action, Andrew Knop, Rob Brown, Sam Hilburn and Tom Carr all scored in New Egypt’s 4-1 win over Mercer Christian.
"We’re getting better," Palumbo said. "Defensively, things are finally coming together. We were giving up a lot of goals earlier in the season, but it’s much better now."
With its improved play, New Egypt will take its shot at turning around a couple of tough losses from earlier in the year. New Egypt was scheduled to face Maple Shade this past Tuesday. When the two teams played earlier this season, Maple Shade won, 3-2. On Friday, New Egypt will play Palmyra. New Egypt was defeated by Palmyra, 2-1, earlier in the year.
RHS
The Robbinsville High boys’ soccer team won its first game of the season, 2-1 over Hamilton last Thursday.
With 15 minutes left in regulation, Justin Denisco scored the game-winner and the Ravens’ most important goal of the season. Lou Owens had netted Robbinsville’s first goal in the opening stanza. Alex Giaquinto and Justin Carrubba each picked up assists for Robbinsville in the contest and Nick Wilcyznski made 5 saves for the winning side.
Robbinsville was scheduled to have hosted Ewing this past Tuesday. Robbinsville is scheduled at Nottingham today (Thursday). Robbinsville (seeded 16th) is scheduled to take on the top-seeded Notre Dame team in the Saturday’s opener of the Mercer County Tournament.

