Immaculata boys soccer routs Timothy Christian in Non-Public South B

PISCATAWAY - It may have been an upset according to the seeding, but don’t tell that to the Immaculata High School boys soccer team.

The seventh-seeded Spartans defeated second-seeded Timothy Christian 5-0 in the Non-Public South B quarterfinals on Friday afternoon. Immaculata will play No. 3 Moorestown Friends in the semifinals next Tuesday.

Despite the seeding, Immaculata head coach Dominic Rice felt his team was superior due to the strength of schedule throughout the season.

“When you look at the whole state and the draw, it is what it is. We play against much tougher opposition,” Rice said. “It’s not a shock that we won. They had some good players, but we just had more of them.”

The Spartans jumped on the Tigers early and often. After Jack Rutledge headed in a corner kick for a goal in the opening minutes, Gurteg Singh followed with a goal from distance, increasing the lead to 2-0.

Jonathan Roberts flicked a ball over the head of Tigers goalie Robert Saydee shortly before halftime to give the Spartans a comfortable 3-0 lead going into the break.

“The reason why we scored so early is because our confidence level was so high,” Roberts said. “We knew they were going to be good, but we kept firing away. Jack scored which got our confidence up and from there, we just took off.”

Nick Fari scored off a corner kick to start the second half, and Roberts then scored his second goal of the game to seal the victory.

The Spartans worked hard to maintain possession all game, and won the ball back consistently after they lost it.

“We worked a lot less on finishing and more on possession in practice,” Rutledge said. “Sixty percent of the time we were working on possession drills.”

Immaculata also prepared for the playing surface. Used to playing on a turf field, the Spartans practiced on grass this week to get used to the uneven and hard playing surface at Timothy Christian.

“We worked on high level, competitive, one-touch passing,” Roberts said. “We worked on those touches.”

Hungry and perhaps slighted by their seed, the Spartans are prepared for a deep tournament run.

“We’re a number seven, but we’re a better team than that,” Roberts said. “I 100 percent think we can win states.”

The inability to maintain possession, along with the early goals, is what condemned the Tigers.

“That sets the tone,” Timothy Christian head coach William Bills said. “Sometimes instead of doing the right thing, you start trying to get a goal fast. We played too much over the top and that hurt us. What I appreciated is we didn’t give up and played all the way through to the end.”

Staff Writer Daniel LoGiudice: dlogiudice@gannettnj.com