The season may have ended on a sour note—a 3-0 loss to Burlington Township in the Central Jersey Group II Tsectional—but the Spotswood boys soccer team can feel good about what it accomplished this year and the outlook for 2009.
The Chargers finished with an 11-8-1 record, a marked improvement over the 5-12-2 log a year ago. Just as important, the return of eight starters provides coach Jeff Marvinny with the confidence his team will continue to improve.
“With whom we have returning, I’m optimistic we’re going to be solid,” Marvinny said. “But first and foremost, we have to replace our top scorer who’s graduating, Vinnie Vizzi. We also have to replace three fullbacks on the back line.”
The loss of Vizzi will be a major void to fill. He was far and away the leading scorer for Spotswood with 25 goals and five assists and provided quality leadership that’s hard to replace. Still, Marvinny feels that may not be so insurmountable a task with the return of four juniors and a sophomore from the midfield who provided a solid scoring punch. Jose Narvaez (one goal, seven assists), Fabio Silviera (two goals, 10 assists), Ricky McCali (three goals, two assists) and Mike Brauer, all juniors, and Danny Medina,
a sophomore with five goals and four assists, will bring experience and scoring potential next year. “Our nucleus will be the scorers coming back,” Marvinny said, “and we’ll try to redistribute our scoring so we can be as potent as we were this year. It’s just a different type of approach.” The loss of fullbacks Chris Pearsall, Jimmy Reyes and Steve O’Brien, all seniors, will present
a challenge for the Chargers, but they do return sweeper Kyle Lacina and goaltender Ben Horowitz.
“While our record was improved over last year,” Marvinny said, “we were involved in close games and we came through in a lot of them. Those experiences are going to bode well for our confidence as we look forward to next year.”