EDISON – It’s been slow going for the Edison High School boys soccer team. After opening the season with a tough 4-2 loss to Piscataway followed by a 3-3 tie with St. Joseph’s, the Eagles have been grounded for over a week.
“Once you start the season, you like to get going, but we’ve had eight straight days off,” Edison head coach Bill Clausen said. “We won all of our scrimmages and looked good going into the opener, but we just didn’t get the job done against Piscataway.”
Edison took an early 1-0 lead in the Piscataway game but failed to put the Chiefs away.
“We just don’t have the goal-scoring of last season,” Clausen said. “Losing Albert Rivera’s 18 goals from last season is a big loss.”
The team’s second-leading goal scorer from last year was Akshay Gupta with four. Gupta and teammate Ivan Cruz scored for Edison in the season opener.
“Akshay could have had six goals in that first half against Piscataway, but we just couldn’t finish,” Clausen said. “That’s an area in which we’ll need to do better. We’ll see Piscataway next week at our place, and hopefully we can make the necessary adjustments.”
Clausen was pleased with his team’s ability to make an immediate turnaround in its second game of the season against St. Joe’s.
“It was a very good performance against a team that was a step up in class,” Clausen said. “We played like we are capable of playing.”
Once again, Edison took an early 1-0 lead before falling behind. Fortunately, Matt Ortega’s second goal of the contest was the equalizer preventing an 0-2 start to the 2007 season. In addition to Ortega’s scores, Edison’s Wesley Ostrzycki found the back of the St. Joseph net for his first score of the season.
In addition to losing its top scorer from last year in Rivera, Edison lost nearly its entire starting lineup with the exception of its midfield. Senior captains Matt Rohal and Michael Ferraro return to the outside midfield and bring experience to a team that starts seven juniors. Juniors John El Maarouf and Ostrzycki are also back to start at central midfield.
“Wesley and John are really top players with nice size,” Clausen said. “Sometimes we’ll have them up top or in the back because of their skill and versatility. We’re still trying to find the right combination.”
Clausen hopes the right combination will be in order this week once the extended layoff ends. The Eagles host visiting J.P. Stevens today at 3:45 p.m. before welcoming South Brunswick to town at 3:45 p.m. tomorrow.
“These back-to-back games are just killers,” Clausen said. “To make matters tougher is that South Brunswick is loaded. They’re the class of the Red Division this year and the team everyone is talking about.”
The Vikings have been cruising thus far with big wins over St. Joe’s and Stevens and should provide another tough test for new goalkeeper Harsh Shah and defenders Alex Lincho and Neal Shroff.
Juniors Alex Belonis and Fernando Protasio will also be instrumental in the Eagles’ defense. Both Belonis and Protasio are expected to see plenty of action at the outside midfield this season.
“It’s always hard when you lose key players and take big hits,” Clausen said. “We don’t have the depth that you really need to do a lot of damage in the Red Division this season.”