November 16, 2011

Kearny's season came to an end after losing to Bridgewater-Raritan in the Group 4 semifinals. (Photo: Jason Bernstein)

Kearny KardinalsPhoto Gallery

WARREN – The end of Kearny's playoff run came with the sound of a sickening clank.

After 100 minutes of play and four rounds of penalty kicks, Bridgewater-Raritan's Zak Jones scored on a shot off the lower left post to deal the Kardinals a heart-breaking 5-3 loss in the NJSIAA Group 4 semifinals last night at Watchung Hills High School.

"When you get down to penalty kicks, that's just unfortunate because it hurts for either team," Kearny head coach BIlly Galka said. "The losing team is always going to be hurting from penalty kicks."

Kearny (18-5-1) and Bridgewater-Raritan (20-2-1) exchanged goals in the first round of kicks. But in the second round, Panthers keeper Alex Kaminetzky guessed correctly on Abdellah Bouzidi's shot, diving to his left to smother the ball just inside the post for the save.

Kamientzky's save would prove to be the difference as Bridgewater-Raritan would score on all five of its penalty kicks. Almir Batista, Gbariel Freitas and Joao Parreiras scored on their penalty kicks for Kearny, while Jones, Sal Vitello, David Monahan, Eli Adams and Chris Hall converted for Bridgewater-Raritan.

"It's a crapshoot. We can do (penalty kicks) in practice and we have been, but as soon as you get up there you don't know what's going to happen," Galka said. "It can go either way.

"All the shots were taken well on their part. They put them in corners and there was nothing we could do about that. When they place them where they did, it's hard to get."

For the first 100 minutes the Kardinals more than held their own against the state's fifth-ranked team. While Kearny out-played the Somerset county squad for large stretches of the evening, it had nothing to show for it on the scoreboard despite multiple scoring opportunities.

Kamientzky (eight saves) denied Batista on consecutive shots from just outside the six in the game's 14th minute. Later on in the first half, Andres Pesantez streaked down the left sideline, eluded a defender and worked a gorgeous give-and-go with Batista before shooting just wide of the net.

Batista would narrowly miss a goal in the 63rd minute when he shot from just outside the six skidded left of the net, prompting the school's all-time leading scorer to pull his jersey over his face in disbelief at the misfortune.

Kearny goalie Tyler Anderson continued his hot play throughout the playoffs with seven saves, three coming in the two  10-minute overtime periods. The 6-foot-6 senior caught an Adam header in the second overtime. A couple of minutes later, Chris Misdea blocked a shot from Bridgewater-Raritan's Vitello from point blank range.

While the wounds from the defeat were fresh in the minds of his team, Galka was happy with the way his team played throughout this playoff run, which culminated with a North 1, Group 4 section title on Friday, it's first sectional championship since 2004.

"I'm very proud of our team for our season and from where we came with all the ups and downs of this season," he said. "They left it all on the field tonight."