September 22, 2010
Harrison remains undefeated
Junior Jason Cunha had two goals for Harrison in a 7-1 win over Secaucus.
Click Here for more photos from Harrison at Secaucus.
By Jason Bernstein
Editorial Director
SECAUCUS – For most teams, having to replace eight starters, including your starting goalie and top two scorers would mean a rebuilding year is on the horizon. But at Harrison, they don’t rebuild, they simply reload.
Even with a roster short on experience, the defending Hudson County champion Blue Tide have continued to roll along as they blew out Secaucus 7-1 to remain unbeaten in the young season.
“Everything seemed to come together pretty nicely for us,” said Harrison coach Mike Rusek. “I thought we moved the ball very well. We took some very nice shots, we opened up our offensive opportunities going to the goal. These are things that we weren’t particularly happy with our first four games. Maybe this is a sign of things to come for us.”
“It doesn’t matter how many kids they graduate,” Secaucus coach Dan Farinola said. “They always have good movement (on offense). They always control the tempo of the game and it’s hard to defend that.”
The host Patriots tried to neutralize the fast-paced Harrison (5-0) offense with an aggressive defense in hopes of forcing mistakes and taking advantage of the Blue Tide’s youth and inexperience.
Secaucus’ defensive success proved to be short lived after the first few minutes as Harrison peppered Patriots keeper Adam Swift with a steady stream of shots. Swift made a couple of diving saves, but the Blue Tide broke through with Chris Osiecki’s goal in the 18th minute.
“We told them that a lot of teams in our league are playing offsides traps against us, playing aggressive against us because we’re young and somewhat inexperienced,” said Rusek, calling it his team’s best performance of the year. “We told the best thing to do is keep that ball moving. Over-dribbling is no good for us. Fouling is no good for us. We want the game flowing and the best way to do that is to pass the ball to each other quickly.”
Mauricio Andre assisted on the opening score and just seven minutes later added a goal of his own. Andre headed in a perfect cross from Michael Barbosa to make it 2-0 in favor of Harrison.
Up 3-0 at halftime, the Blue Tide broke the game wide open early in the second half as Jason Cunha, Eduardo Sanchez and Facundo Barreta all scored in a span of less than four minutes. For Cunha, a junior, it was his second goal of the game.
Terry Gutierrez capped off the scoring for Harrison with his goal in the 75th minute.
Freshman Suad Kaqimi scored the lone goal for Secaucus (2-3) in the 54th minute. Swift made 20 saves in net.
“He’s a tough kid,” Farinola said. “He plays with a good position. Unfortunately we didn’t give him the support today he needed. He’s a good keeper. He had some really nice saves for us today.”
Bryan Tapia made five saves in the opening half to pick up the win for the Blue Tide. Sophomore Carlos Gutierrez came on in the second half and stopped three shots to wrap up the game.
Adam Swift made 20 saves in net for Secaucus in defeat
1st |
2nd
|
Total |
|
| Harrison Blue Tide (5-0) | 3 |
4
|
7 |
| Secaucus Patriots (2-3) | 0 |
1
|
1 |
| H: Chris Osiecki (Mauricio Andre) 18th minute | |||
| H: Andre (Vinny Abarca) 25th minute | |||
| H: Jason Cunha (Michael Barbosa) 36th minute | |||
| H: Cunha (Luann Oliveira) 47th minute | |||
| H: Eduardo Sanchez (Bryan Costa) 48th minute | |||
| H: Facundo Barreta (Guilherme DeSiqueira) 50th minute | |||
| S: Suad Kaqimi (Eric Kosky) 54th minute | |||
| H: Terry Gutierrez (Goncalo Santos) 75th minute | |||
Goalies: H: Bryan Tapia (5 saves), Carlos Gutierrez (3 saves); S: Adam Swift (20 saves), . |
|||