By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
SOMERVILLE — After having played nearly 200 minutes of soccer against each other this season, it’s pretty clear very little separates the Montgomery High and Pingry School boys soccer teams.
And that makes Saturday’s 1-1 tie in the Somerset County Tournament a fitting result that left the teams as county co-champions. The Cougars used a goal by Joey LaVake and a defense that held off a late Pingry surge to earn a tie and their first county tournament title in a game played at the Nap Torpey Complex in Somerville.
“It’s bittersweet,” Montgomery coach Rickey Steeb said. “This is our first county championship in school history. I think that says a lot. We have come so far. Four years ago we didn’t win a game. All the work that they put in and all the work the boys in the past couple years since that year have put in – I can’t say enough. This was one our goals. We won the conference and the last time we won a conference was 11 years ago. This is our second goal that we accomplished and now we are looking toward sectionals.”
After a scoreless first half the Cougars drew first blood 10 minutes into the second half on a header by LaVake on a well set up corner kick. The lead held up until Pingry scored with 13 minutes left to tie it.
“After we scored I think we let off a little,” Montgomery senior defender Conner Yurcisin said. “After that it was 50-50 again like it always is with us and Pingry. We know all of their markups they know all of our markups. We played them already once this year and we usually play them twice each year. So it was two familiar teams going at it.
“We came into it really confident but it is Pingry so anything can happen. At the end they loaded the box. They have a lot of bigger kids than us so we just were blocking the balls as best we could. It was getting a little hectic. Charlie (Rodgers) made a good play clearing the ball off the line that saved the game for us there.”
The win continues a magical season for the Cougars, whose seniors can appreciate everything that has happened after being part of a winless campaign as freshmen.
“There are four freshmen on this team that were on the team that didn’t win a game freshman year and that is the core of the team right now,” Yurcisin said. “It’s been a grind since then. I love this team. We’re just so hard working and it is paying off this year. We’re a family and we just all work for each other and play for each other. It’s just clicking right now.
“I thought we did a pretty good job. We know their strengths and what they go for. We’ve scouted them a lot.”
The teams met in Montgomery’s second game of the season and Pingry handed the Cougars their only loss. This time around the game was just as even.
“They are a great team,” said Steeb, whose team opened the Central Jersey Group 4 tournament with a 6-1 win over Old Bridge on Tuesday. “Going into this game we knew it was a tall task for us. We played them the second game of the season at our place and lost in double OT on a PK. We felt that we had our opportunities to win that game. Lately we have been playing pretty well and we were confident going into this game.
“They really came at us at end and we were able to hold them off. Charlie actually cramped up in the game. He had to come out of the game. We put him back in and he came up huge for us at the end.”
Montgomery controlled the play most of the first 60 minutes and got the first goal off a well-executed short corner and a perfect cross from Brandon Marna.
“That is in our bag of tricks,” Steeb said. “They get to see how the defense sets up and at the time that was the play. Joey is super athletic. He is one of the fastest forwards in the state and he has some serious ups.”
