High spirited action from the first whistle had the No. 5 Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School boys soccer team and the No. 18 Westfield Blue Devils hustling up and down the field virtually without any let up at Gary Kehler Stadium in Westfield on October 8. But it took nearly 88 minutes for the outcome of the rivalry to be decided when junior Alex Rokhsar took a pass from senior Max Burrick and crossed to senior Henry Iannuzzi, who ripped the ball into the upper right hand corner with 2:04 left in overtime to earn the Blue Devils a 10 triumph over the now 10-1 Raiders.
Iannuzzi described, “I don’t know how it got to him but it got to Alex Rokhsar out on the wing. He dribbled into the middle and I was going out wide because I am a lefty, so I know he’s passing to me. So I got out on the left, curled in. He tried to shoot and missed but he ended up getting to me on the rebound. From there, I always knew I was going to do it. Just cut in and shoot.”
A primary concern for the 9-1-2 Blue Devils was the speed and quickness of junior forward Jayvon Young and the accurate crossing ability of senior co-captain/center midfielder Luca Passucci, who would always look for him sprinting predominantly down the right sideline.
Blue Devil Head Coach Eric Shaw said, “For me, he’s the best player in the county, very athletic, quick and skilled. He probably could have won the game in the first five minutes. He’s a handful. You got to mix that guy up somewhat differently. Sometimes you got to play him tight, you got to drop off, sometimes you got to win the ball, sometimes you got to foul him. You learn from those moments and we will face them again, so can we find different ways to manage him and make it difficult?”
“That kid’s good! On the outside, we were saying if he’s on the wing, double team him. We knew that he’s the one guy, if they did nothing else, they would kick it out to him, so if we could stop him, get a body in his back then we would have the upper hand,” Iannuzzi added.
Just a few minutes into the game, Raider senior Caden Matulonis took a right corner kick into the box that the Blue Devil defenders rejected. Young got to the ball and lofted it over the crossbar. Two minutes later, Luca Passucci launched a long serve into Young, who had a one-on-one situation with Blue Devil junior goalkeeper Simeon Gunzberg, who managed to make the first of his seven fabulous saves. Within a minute, Gunzberg made good on his second opportunity when he smothered another shot from Young.
The Blue Devils turned the tables for several minutes and it began with a 40-yard free kick from senior cocaptain/ midfielder Niko Pierce that created a mob scene in the box but the Raider defenders led buy co-captains Jack Sponheimer and Devin Pearce pushed it out of bounds resulting in a right side corner kick.
Pierce hooked the ball into the box toAustin Williams and his shot missed to the left. Midway through the half, midfielder Jake Pardes’ free kick was knocked out of play and this time Pierce had a corner kick on the left side but the Raider defense held tight.
Another shift in momentum began with Luca Passucci’s long free kick being knocked out of harm’s way. Three minutes later, Passucci’s free kick missed just left then the tug of war shifted slightly to the Blue Devils and Iannuzzi sent a right corner kick into the mob but the result was the same. As the half was about to end, Matulonis skid a right-to-left shot outside the Blue Devil goal.
The second half began with the Blue Devils initiating action but Young immediately started hounding their backfield passing set up, which threw them out of sync. The Raiders grabbed possession and freshman midfielder Anastasio Pavlou ripped a long left-footed shot that Gunsberg stopped. The jostling continued and Pierce got off a shot that just cleared the crossbar. With 25 minutes showing, Luca Passucci launched a long free kick that was extremely close to striking gold, but not quite.
Iannuzzi commented, “Right at the start of the game he (Young) was pressuring us. He was taking every ball, he was dribbling past two or three defenders. It was tough! We were lucky he didn’t score in that first half because he had two good chances. Simeon (Gunzberg) had a great game!”
A minute later, junior forward Sam Judka sent a nice cross to senior midfielder Danny Gonzalez, whose right-to-left shot was rejected. At the midpoint of the second half, Pardes pulled off one of his several takeaways from Young and slipped the ball to Gonzalez but Sponheimer got the possession back to the Raiders. However, Pardes did it again and sent the ball to Judka, who drilled a shot that forced Raider goalkeeper Shawn Guzman to make a diving save.
With 12 minutes remaining in regulation, the Raiders got their fourth real opportunity when Luca Passucci hooked the ball into Young, whose shot was tipped out of bounds by Gunzberg. Passucci curled a dangerous right corner kick that convinced Gunzberg to dive to the turf to make the save. Five minutes remained and Sponheimer tapped to Young, who ripped another scorcher but Gunzberg dove for the save. Just before the end of regulation, Pavlou made another attempt but his shot was easily stopped.
The overtime period turned out to be totally all Blue Devils as they seized the initiative and never relented. Two minutes in, Judka found Burrick in the box which created quite a stir and a rejection. Iannuzzi had a corner kick from the right side but it was knocked away. Pierce had a left side corner kick that was batted away. Pierce took another left side corner that eventually got out to co-captain Ethan Wade but his long shot was off course.
Finally, Burrick was coming down the center and tapped to Rokhsar, who immediately crossed to Iannuzzi on the right. Iannuzzi settled the ball and rifled a left-footer into the upper right corner with 2:04 on the clock for the victory.
“We changed the way we play. In retrospect, I think we would do it a little earlier. We came very predictable as the game went on. They kind of knew what we were doing. So in the overtime, we felt we had nothing to lose. We just changed the personnel and where they lined up and we asked them to play a little more indirect to isolate our two strikers, Iannuzzi and (Sam) Judka up top. So we tried to pin them up with the two centerbacks,” Coach Shaw explained.
A few weeks ago the Blue Devils beat the Elizabeth Minuteman and now they edged the Raiders, so presently there’s a new sheriff in Union County.
Iannuzzi expressed, “We started this whole season, we knew we were the better team. We just tried to take it to them. Show them who is boss!”
