Pingry boys soccer advances back to SCT final

BASKING RIDGE - The Pingry School’s boys soccer team is heading back to the Somerset County Tournament final.

The defending champion and top-seeded Big Blue defeated fifth-seeded Bernards 2-0 in the semifinals on Saturday afternoon to earn a berth in next weekend’s final.

“We knew they were going to be a fast, physical team, we just kind of worked on what we’ve been doing in practice all week, all season,” Pingry senior midfielder Phillip Zachary said. “I think we possessed a lot of the game and just broke them down.”

Pingry (11-3-2) scored its first goal with 29:53 remaining in the first half when Zachary scored on a corner kick. Junior midfielder Henry Kraham took the kick and junior defender Owen Gaynor sent a cross across the goal to Zachary who shot the ball behind Bernards goalie Andres Lezme for the 1-0 lead.

“It was a corner crossed in by Henry Kraham, low on the ground, it just kind of went through someone’s legs and it kind of set up for me right there and it was an easy tuck,” Zachary said of his goal.

The Big Blue almost scored again with nine minutes to play but the ball bounced against the crossbar and back out into play.

With 4:22 remaining Pingry put the game away. The Big Blue was awarded a free kick which junior forward Obi Ikoro corralled in front of the net and sent to senior midfielder Yanni Angelides, who deposited it past Lezme for the 2-0 advantage.

“I think we did well attacking their widths, we have Obi (Ikoro) and (Henry) Kraham on the width, I think that we did a good job getting them the ball and them getting baseline,” Angelides said of Pingry’s offense. “They were looking really confident today taking players on and getting to the baseline.”

The Pingry defense kept Bernards off balance for most of the game and didn’t allow any dangerous shots on goal as the Big Blue recorded its seventh shutout of the season. The Mountaineers took five shots on goal and Big Blue goalie Thomas Zusi made three stops.

Lezme made eight saves for Bernards (11-3-2).

Pingry will face third-seeded Montgomery in the SCT final next Saturday at Bridgewater-Raritan’s Torpey Field. The Cougars knocked off second-seeded Gill St. Bernard’s 4-0 in the other semifinal on Saturday afternoon.

“For us it’s all about heart, coming together as a team,” Angelides said. “I think something just clicked in the past couple of weeks for us, we’ve just been playing really well, everybody’s been going in hard, working, giving it their all for the team and I think that’s the most important thing going into the next game.”

Staff Writer Lauren Knego: lknego@gannettnj.com