Creegan scores winner in local soccer showdown

By: Sean Moylan Sports Writer
    After two tough losses to solid Burlington Township and Delran teams, the Bordentown Regional High boys’ varsity soccer squad showed it mettle with a pair of excellent one-goal wins over Northern Burlington and Holy Cross this past week.
    With 12 minutes left in Tuesday’s game played in Delran, the Scotties’ Kyle Creegan received a great pass by Babatunde Lawal on an impossible angle and he booted in the only goal in the Scotties’ 1-0 win over the Holy Cross Lancers.
    “Kyle Creegan had a brilliant goal and I don’t use the word brilliant often (he doesn’t),” said Bordentown head boys’ varsity soccer coach Mike Brennan. “He rifled the ball into the upper 90 and he couldn’t have put it in a better place if he had thrown it.”
    Although Bordentown scored just the one goal the Scotties did take 16 shots on goal to just four by the Lancers. With three saves, Scotties goalie Chris O’Leary earned his second consecutive shutout.
    “We did a good job of dictating play and we executed our game plan well,” added Brennan.
    Creegan also scored Bordentown’s goal in its 1-0 win over Northern Burlington on Monday at Joe Lawrence Park.
    “We got a timely goal (by Creegan) off a double assist by Drew Turgyan and D.J Kafer and we made it stand up,” said Brennan. “Northern Burlington played much better this time around.”
    Bordentown had beaten NBC, 5-1, the week before, but on Monday Tim Tedesco’s hard-working club gave Bordentown a great game. Greyhounds’ goalie Steve Fenstermacher played very well and made 14 saves. Bordentown took 18 shots. NBC had five shots on goal and O’Leary compiled three saves to throw up the goose egg on the scoreboard.
    “We needed a couple of good performances this past week because we’re still hoping to make the Coaches’ Tournament,” said Brennan, who has never had one of his teams qualify for that tourney.
    On September 24, Burlington Township hosted and beat Bordentown, 1-0. The Falcons’ Dan Fazzone scored a first-half goal to lead his team to the win.
    “It was an upsetting loss. But Burlington Township came out and executed its game plan,” noted Brennan.
    Burlington Township shot six times while Bordentown shot four times in the game. O’Leary had five saves in a very good defensive game for both sides.
    Last Friday, Bordentown lost 3-1 at Delran.
    “In the Delran game we actually played well in the beginning of the game. But then we had a couple of breakdowns and they took advantage of all of our breakdowns,” noted Brennan, whose Scotties can beat the Bears when they limit their mistakes.
    Delran scored all three of its goals in the first half. Dylan Scaccetti took advantage of some miscommunication in the Delran backfield to score an unassisted goal for Bordentown in the second half. O’Leary made a dozen saves to keep it as close as it was. Bordentown took nine shots on goal.
    Bordentown (6-3-1) did a pretty good job of coming back from its mini slump last week. The Scotties are scheduled to host Lawrence on Saturday. Bordentown is scheduled at Burlington City next Monday.
    FLORENCE
    The Florence Township Memorial High boys’ varsity soccer team defeated Burlington City on September 24, but lost to Maple Shade this past Tuesday.
    Milo Milosovici netted a pair of goals to lead the Flashes to a 4-1 win over the Burlington City Blue Devils at Florence.
    “We actually played well that game and Milo played a very good game,” said Florence boys’ soccer coach Mike Flynn, who had his club keep the pressure on Burlington City the entire game because he knew the Blue Devils were a team capable of making a comeback. “(Against Burlington City) we got a good counter-attack and our passing was crisper and we won a lot of 50-50 balls.”
    Florence scored three times in the first half to take a commanding 3-0 lead. Josh Partyka and Adam Swiderski also posted goals for the winning side.
    Florence players took 20 shots while Florence held Burlington City to 15 shots on goal. Flashes’ goalie Zack Ronyack had 10 saves in the contest.
    Then this past Tuesday, Florence lost 3-0 at Maple Shade.
    Flynn summed up the loss with one sentence, “They’re big, strong and athletic and we ain’t.”
    Florence, however, usually plays very smart soccer and it usually has its players in good position to make a strong counter-attack after a quick steal. But that just didn’t happen on Tuesday.
    “Today we just didn’t jell. There was no cohesion between our midfielders and our forwards. It was like we had three separate units playing at the same time. There was so much space between our midfielders and our forwards,” said Flynn.
    The knee injury which has hampered Milosovici’s play all season long was acting up again. Consequently, his minutes were limited in Tuesday’s game. Moreover, other injuries to Florence players led to several Flashes playing out of position which may have contributed to their poor spacing in the contest.
    Even so, Flynn was quick to credit Maple Shade and commented, “Maple Shade took us out of our game plan. They’re very strong on the ball and they run hard and they won a lot of balls in the air.
    “We needed to make that one pass and we just couldn’t do it.”
    Despite Maple Shade’s three goals, Flynn felt Ronyack played very well and he couldn’t recall him making any real mistakes in goal.
    The good news is Florence is a soccer team which makes great adjustments in practices so look for the Flashes to play better in their next few weeks. However, Florence (4-3) is getting into a brutal part of its regular season schedule. Florence is scheduled to host Riverside today (Thursday). Florence is scheduled at New Egypt tomorrow (Friday). Next Monday Florence is scheduled to host a night game versus Willingboro.
    NBC
    The Northern Burlington boys’ soccer team was defeated by Cinnaminson, 4-0. Steve Fentstermacher made seven saves in goal.
    LCA
    The Life Center boys’ soccer team defeated Doane Academy, 2-1.
    Mike Carroll and Kevin Bailey each scored. Daniel pitter had an assist.