Banged up boys team ran out of gas

By: David Gurney
   It wasn’t supposed to end like this.
   Yet, after a 10-1-1 start to the season, misfortune dealt the South Brunswick High School boys soccer a heavy blow.
   The Vikings dropped six of their final eight games of the season, including a 3-0 defeat to St. Joseph’s of Metuchen in the Greater Middlesex Conference semifinal game Sunday and a 2-1 overtime defeat to Manalapan in the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV first-round game to end South Brunswick’s once-promising season.
   SB finished with a 12-7-1 record on the season, which included a Red Division Championship and a No. 4 seed in the county tournament.
   But after a brilliant start to the season, highlighted by a 9-2-1 division record and a non-conference win over Montgomery, the Vikings struggled, dropping contests against Hopewell Valley, East Brunswick, Monroe and North Brunswick in the regular season before bowing out in the postseason.
   "It’s always disappointing to end your season, but most teams end their season with a loss," South Brunswick head coach Chris Hayston said. "We had some injuries and tough luck hit us, but every team has injuries. The guys went out there and played hard and gave it all they had. We just didn’t make enough plays."
   In the Vikings 3-0 loss in the GMC’s, they were victimized by a slow start and the absence of junior forward Zach Zenda, who finished second on the team in scoring despite missing the final four games of the season.
   It was only minutes into the game when St. Joe’s forward Rob Allen beat the Vikings down the sideline, converting off a feed from Bryan Gilmartin to push it past starting goalie Chris DeSouza to make it 1-0.One goal was all the Falcons needed to deflate the Vikings.
   SBHS, which scored six goals in two regular season contests against the Falcons, simply couldn’t solve them this time around.
   Quality shots were few and far between before goals by Gilmartin and Chris Yip in the first half buried the Vikings in a deficit too large to overcome.
   "They came out more intense before the game and when they put that first one in our confidence just went down," junior forward Troy Confessore said after the loss. "It’s a tough one to lose, especially for our seniors. It’s hard to beat a team three times.
   "They showed us different things this time that just caught us off-guard." Confessore had perhaps the two best chances for the Vikings, with both his shot and header missing the back of the net by mere inches.
   But nothing to show for either shot.
   "It was a tough loss, but we were outplayed," senior midfielder Steve Smoke said. "They came out playing hard and we didn’t match that. We were in a hole and it was tough to come back from the early goals."
   While the Vikings were plagued by some early goals in the semifinals, it was late goals that doomed the Vikes in the state tournament loss to Manalapan.
   After taking a 1-0 lead with 20 minutes to go in the second half on a Confessore goal, assisted by midfielder Kazuki Yamada, Manalapan tallied with five minutes left to bring the game into overtime. With only five minutes remaining in extra period, Manalapan connected off a corner kick, knocking it past goalie Kevin Gramata (nine saves) for the game-winning golden goal.
   "The kids played extremely hard and gave a great effort," Hayston said. "Unfortunately, the other team made one more play in the end. We made adjustments, moving guys like Dan Miller up and moving Bryan Keller and Evan Beck back, but Manalapan is a good team. We played our hardest and I’m proud of the guys."