Boys Soccer: Pingry, Montgomery finish as SCT co-champs

BRIDGEWATER - After 100 minutes of soccer on Saturday afternoon, the Somerset County Boys Soccer Tournament ended with co-champions.

Top-seeded The Pingry School and third-seeded Montgomery ended in a 1-1 tie to finish as the 12th set of teams to claim the co-championship since the tournament started in 1978. For the Cougars (12-1-3), it was their first county title in school history, while the Big Blue (12-3-3) picked up title No. 19.

“This is big for us, it definitely feels great to get this far,” Montgomery senior Joey LaVake said. “It’s wonderful.”

After a scoreless first half, Montgomery struck first with 30:17 remaining in the game. The Cougars were awarded a corner and they played it short as junior Brandon Marna sent a cross across the goal where LaVake headed it in at the right post for the 1-0 lead.

“First time championship in school history, so I’m very proud of my guys, I felt that they played very well,” Montgomery coach Rickey Steeb said. “We definitely had our opportunities to win the game but at the end we’re still champions.”

With 12:27 left Pingry tied the game. Senior forward Alex Ramos tucked a pass from senior midfielder Phil Zachary into the net past Montgomery goalie Matt Cabrera for a 1-1 game.

“I just lined up on the opposite side to try and get someone else head it across the goal and have me knock it down,” Ramos said. “It’s happened a couple of times this year but I haven’t been able to finish it but I finally finished it this time.”

Both teams had a chance to win the game in overtime. Montgomery almost took the lead with six minutes left in the first overtime when LaVake beat two defenders and sent a shot towards the left post, but Pingry goalie Thomas Zusi just got his hands on the ball to knock it away.

In the second overtime the Big Blue had a chance of its own to take sole possession of the championship when Cabrera came out of the net to challenge the play and a Pingry player tried to knock it in, but it bounced off the crossbar and down, back into play where Montgomery kicked it out of harm’s way.

“After they beat Gill (St. Bernard’s) 4-0 (in the semifinals) it was a huge surprise to us,” Ramos said. “So we were ready for them to be better than when we played them earlier because even though we didn’t play well, we still managed to come out with a victory, and today just to tie them we had to play almost our best, so it was tough.”

Both teams took 17 shots on net. Cabrera made eight saves while Zusi stopped 11 shots.

Staff Writer Lauren Knego: lknego@gannettnj.com