The East Windsor PAL Vipers, a U-11 boys’ travel soccer team, placed first in the MOSA National IV flight. This follows the Vipers placing 1st in the MOSA National VI U-10 boys division in the Spring of 2006.
The Vipers not only won the championship, they did it in a dominating fashion. The Vipers had five shutouts and only allowed a total of six goals in 10 games played. The Vipers scored 37 goals during the season.
The Vipers final game resulted in a 7-0 win over the Sayreville Phoenix club.
Beginning the scoring avalanche for the Vipers was Bryan Quezada, on passes from Adam Sherif and Mike Papakonstantinou.
Mike Papakonstantinou’s penalty kick ricocheted off the post and a hustling Nick Mastropasqua slammed it home for goal number two.
Brian Quezada and Adam Sherif teamed up again on goal number three, with Bryan Quezada feeding Adam Sherif the ball, who then fired it into the opponent’s net.
Nick Mastropasqua’s fancy footwork confused the Sayreville defense and he rocketed a right footer into the goal for score number four.
Mike Papakonstantinou and Jason Aguilar exhibited their passing skills, feeding Evan Kirton the ball for goal number five.
Kobie Crosley fired a pass to Jason Aguilar, who footed the ball past the Sayreville keeper for goal number six.
Jason Aguilar closed out the scoring on a beautiful pass from Adam Sherif for goal number seven.
Offensively, Adam Sherif, Bryan Quezada, Jeremy Parkhurst and Evan Kirton kept the momentum going with their high energy and quick thinking.
Vipers midfielders Nick Mastropasqua, Giovanni Duenas, Jason Aguilar, Rayyan Sayeed and Julio Uguna turned in excellent work, utilizing their passing skills to control the ball for the better part of the game.
Defensmen Kobie Crosley, Luke Forden, Mike Papakonstantinou and Austin Hanby dominated. Goalies Jake Reyes and Jonathon Lugo turned in solid performances between the posts, while an injured Shane Cormagi cheered on his team from the sidelines.
Coach Zizo would like to thank Coach Ralph and Team Manager Stephanie Mastropasqua for all their hard work, and also the parents for their dedication and support to the team this past season.
ARSENAL
The East Windsor PAL Arsenal, a U-10 boys’ team, traveled to Toms River and withstood terrible weather to emerge with a 2-2 tie.
Down 2-0, the Arsenal started their comeback on a goal by Coby St. Phard. In the second Half, Nick Duckworth tied the score.
The timely goalkeeping of Peter Schintzler and Alex Catana, and the suffocating and physical defense of Nick Duckworth helped the Arsenal escape with the tie.
The Arsenal closed out their regular season at home with a 3-2 victory against arch rival Old Bridge.
Bryan Ochoa scored one of his typically magical goals just minutes into the game to give the Arsenal an early 1-0 lead. Old Bridge went ahead 2-1, but a spirited half-time speech from Coach Vlad St. Phard motivated and energized the Arsenal.
MJ Cobb’s nonstop hustle, Coby St. Phard’s determination, Peter Schintzler’s speed, Luke Redfern’s aggressiveness and Bryan Ochoa’s creativity helped ignite the Arsenal offense, leading to a beautiful tap in goal by Sylvio "Sergeant" Vicuna off a brilliant cross.
The Arsenal defense of Nick Duckworth, Connor Paul, Juan Jose Osario and Kevin Wargo went into lockdown Mode. Then, with less than 10 minutes to play, Connor Paul blasted home the winning goal from the 18.
Following the game, Coach Vlad St. Phard and his lovely wife Rachelle treated the team and their families to a feast at the legendary Harold’s New York Deli and Restaurant in Edison.
A special thanks goes out to Coach Vlad, Assistant Coach Tony Catana, Soccer Consultant to the Stars Frank Osario, and all of the parents who make this season a success.
DRAGONS
Last Saturday, the East Windsor PAL Dragons, a U-12 boys’ travel team, defeated the Bricktown S.A. Hurricanes, 3-2.
The Hurricanes scored both their goals in the first half despite many great saves by goalie Zack Marcus and amazing defensive plays by Ben Debebe and Baxter Gilmore.
The Dragons turned on the pressure in the second half and turned the tide. A flurry of shots by the Dragons resulted in a goal by Robert Ewanis on a pass from Philip Kramer. Zack Marcus, Peter Kent and Tyler Mills continued to feed the hungry Dragons offense resulting in a goal by Zack Crutcher on a pass from Robert Ewanis. Alex Gordon, off a rebound shot, scored the Dragons’ winning goal with only seconds left after Nick Kulick fired a shot that bounced off the goal post.
The Dragon’s "keeper" Austin Kurey came up with a number of great plays in goal to shut out the Hurricanes during second half action.
This past Sunday, the Dragons completed a successful Fall 2006 season with a 3-1 win over the Toms River Riptides.
Toms Rivers’ defense and goalie for most of the entire match deprived the Dragons from scoring with outstanding defensive play, especially from their keeper position. The Dragons out shot the Riptide 25-1 during the first half alone, but was down 1-0.
The Dragons finally tied it up midway in the second half when Tyler Mills scored with Brett Celenze getting the assist.
Both defenses were put to the test during the remaining 10 minutes with each team trying to grab the lead. Eric Hubbard, Mike Chica, Max Hernandez and Scott Vitabile played as if "possessed" as they aggressively countered the Riptides attacks.
Finally, with only minutes left in the match, Austin Kurey put the Dragons in the lead with a "laser" shot that totally surprised the Riptides keeper. Now with only seconds left, Austin Kurey scored his second goal of the game on a shot that unfortunately for the Riptides deflected off a defenders head and into the Toms River goal, securing a come-from-behind Dragon victory.
The Dragons finished in third place in MOSA U-12 Boys play this fall season with a 6-2-2 record.
The Dragon players and parents would like to thank the Dragon coaches Bill and Julie Kramer, Bob Ewanis and Kevin Hubbard for their hard work and dedication to the players this season.
SPIRIT
The East Windsor PAL SpirIt, a brand new U-9 girls’ travel soccer team, finished a very successful initial fall season with a tough loss to Freehold.
The Spirit have continued to get better each game of their first season of competition. Leading scorers this season for the Spirit were Cassandra Morris, Angela Giampolo and Jessica DeDomenico.
The Spirit Defense was lead by Megan Henderson, Julia Trost, Moran Dennehy and Grace Wroblewski. Christine Mayer and Rachel Dau were superb as goal keeper. Allison Gleich and Meghan Burd played great on offense and midfield, respectively. Kathryn McDaid showed great ball handling skills and Anna Cox played well were ever she was needed.
BLAST
The East Windsor PAL Blast beat the Hazlet Finesse 2-1 in their final game of the season.
The Blast trailed the Finesse in the standings heading into the game and needed the victory to take the division title. The Blast got on the board early when Sam Swallwood broke down the left sideline towards the corner, faked out a Hazlet defender with some fancy footwork and centered the ball in front of the goal. Lydia Walsh redirected the ball into the back of the net to give the Blast a 1-0 lead.
The Blast sustained that lead well into the second half. The defensive unit of Swallwood, Becca Cordo, Amy Woods, Sarah Devlin, Kristen McGrath and Kelly McGlew kept the Finesse off their game for both halves.
McGrath was playing in her second game in the last month since injuring her wrist. McGlew played the game recovering from an arm injury she sustained in a game played the previous day that forced her to leave that game.
The second half started with a big offensive push that the Blast held off until Hazlet put in a goal over the hands of Blast keeper Lisa Jerry midway through the second half. It was the only goal for Hazlet, as Jerry played heads up soccer in the box the entire game.
From that point on the teams battled up and down the field. Midfielders Raffi Alexander, Boo Connolly, Kristen Bland, Reena Ketkar and Jordan Gallardo held the middle of the field with all they had. Blast forwards Nikki Starke, Samantha Gleich and Anne Lee kept pressing the Hazlet defense, but they were denied from scoring.
With less than 10 minutes left in the game, forward Anne Lee took a shot on goal from the right corner that bounced around in front of the Finesse defense. Ashley Avante took control of the ball, pulled it away from the keeper and found the back of the net. It was her second goal of the season and turned out to be the game winner.
The Blast finished the season 6-0-4, having scored 24 goals and only allowing six. In their division, the Blast finished the season giving up the least amount of goal, posted five shutouts and was the only team to not lose a game.
CRUSHERS
The U-14 Cranbury Crushers Girls’ soccer team turned in a dominating performance on both ends of the field this past weekend to defeat the first place West Windsor Jersey Girls by a score of 3-0. The win avenged a 1-0 loss to West Windsor earlier in the season and improved the Crushers’ record to 5-2-2 with one game remaining in the fall schedule.
The Crushers opened the scoring at 24 minutes into the first half with some aggressive teamwork in front of the West Windsor net. A direct kick from the right wing by Carly O’Brien was deflected by forward Lexis Stasi to Christine Ray, whose shot to the far post was in turn knocked into the corner of the net by midfielder Erin Alpaugh.
The Crushers bumped the lead up to 2-0 at the 2-minute mark of the second half when Lexis Stasi’s pass from the left wing set up a hard shot from midfielder Sara Troyano in front of the Jersey Girls’ net that rebounded off of a West Windsor defender and past the keeper for a score.
Troyano gave the Crushers a 3-0 lead by following up with her second goal of the day from virtually the identical spot after dribbling past several West Windsor defenders at the 16-minute mark. The Crushers played solid defense throughout the remainder of the game to preserve the shutout.
Both Sarah Debebe and Tori Sabo made strong contributions to the Crushers’ offensive attack, splitting time between midfield and the forward line.
The Crusher defense was led by fullbacks Kim Palagyi and Jennifer Barone, and sweeper Carly O’Brien, who did an impressive job of forcing the West Windsor attack to the sidelines and away from the Cranbury net. Emily Schraudenbach played well in goal in the first half, and followed that with excellent midfield play in the second half. Ashley Troyano made several nice stops in goal in the second half to seal the win.
EAGLES
The Cranbury Eagles, sponsored by Prestige diner, finished the season this weekend by playing the second and third place teams in their flight.
On Saturday, the Eagles played to a 0-0 tie with the West Orange Tigers. Cristina Tous, Alex Fiore and Nicolette Martire had strong games in goal, while Melissa Barnes, Sydney Crowe and Isabel Oldis anchored the defense.
On Sunday, the Eagles were home against the second place Bridgewater Twisters. The Eagles came out strong and took a 1-0 lead on a Mia Caglieris goal. Later in the first half, Alex Fiore scored her first goal as an Eagle, taking a great feed from Martire and putting ball in the back of the net.
In the second half, Alexa Lopez passed to Caglieris for her second goal of the game. Kelly Arnold then weaved through the Twister defense to finish the scoring.
Brooke Frischman had a strong game at forward, while Paige Metz and Brianee Hendryx were strong in the midfield. Hailey Brennan had three terrific saves in the second half to preserve the shutout. Claire Stout played her usual strong game in goal in the first half.
The Eagles end the season with a record of 9-0-1, outscoring the opposition 39-2.
COUGARS
The Cranbury Cougars, a U-10 girls’ soccer team sponsored by Watov & Kipnes, P.C., Brace Place and Cranbury Pizza, tied the North Brunswick Lightning, 1-1.
Diane Villafane scored her first goal of the season for the Cougars lone goal. Alessandra Auster, Barbara Garretson, Caitlyn Judge and Jessica Marcus all played strong games on offense. Ashley Cukier, Renee Dripps, Erica Murphy, Jasmine Paige, Baljot Ranu, Paloma Rodney and Geneva Stiglic all played well on defense. Barbara Garretson, Jasmine Paige and Baljot Ranu did well in goal.
The Cranbury Cougars were defeated by the Westfield FC Excelsior, 4-1. Alessandra Auster, assisted by Jessica Marcus, scored for the Cougars.
The Cranbury Cougars defeated the Branchburg Lightning, 3-0.
In the first half of the game, Erica Murphy scored her first goal of the season, followed by Jessica Marcus finding the back of the net for the second score. During the second half of the game, Ashley Cukier scored her first goal of the season with an assist by Barbara Garretson.
Alessandra Auster, Caitlyn Judge and Baljot Ranu all played well on offense. Renee Dripps, Jasmine Paige, Paloma Rodney and Geneva Stiglic played well on midfield and defense. Baljot Ranu, Barbara Garretson and Jasmine Paige combined for the shutout in goal.
