CN Boys Soccer: Montgomery’s Epstein is Player of Year

When told he should start playing soccer at the age of 5, Zach Epstein initially refused. Luckily for the Montgomery High School boys soccer team, his father was able to coerce him into playing, and Epstein has been in love with the sport ever since.

Despite not winning a game his freshman season, Epstein and his teammates kept pushing and knew that the only direction to go was up. This season all the hard work paid off as Esptein, a senior captain, helped the Cougars to a 13-2-3 record, the first Skyland Conference Raritan Division title in 11 years, and most important, the first Somerset County Tournament title in program history.

Epstein anchored a defensive line that allowed only 16 goals all season and posted five shutouts, as well as chipped in two goals and three assists. For his efforts, he is the 2015 Courier News Boys Soccer Player of the Year.

“Zach is the hardest player I’ve ever played against. He practices the hardest, he plays the hardest, and he just cares about the game more than anybody else I know,” Montgomery senior defender Conner Yurcisin said. “He demands the best out of everybody. If you’re not giving your best, he’ll let you know, verbally, instantly, he’s not shy about that. He really keeps everybody on the field, and off the field too, in line and really pushes them to be their best.”

Courier News Boys Soccer All-Area Teams

For a large majority of his career Epstein has played on the back line, but he was always more than happy to play wherever he was needed most.

“I started off on defense because nobody else on the little-kid team wanted to play, everyone wanted to score, and my dad was the coach, so he said, ‘OK, you have to play defense,’ ” Epstein said. “I wasn’t the most skilled player, so I just went in and kicked it up, and ever since then I’ve played defense. I’ve played a little bit of center mid and made a few runs up. I played striker, actually, all sophomore year, but it was just where they needed me.”

Four years ago Montgomery finished the season 0-17-2, then jumped to an 11-4-3 record in Epstein’s sophomore year. Last season the Cougars improved to 13-5-1, and this season was the icing on the cake for the senior class. Despite an early exit in the state tournament to Monroe in the quarterfinals of Central Jersey Group IV, this season is looked at as nothing short of a success, and Epstein believes it’s because of a change in the team’s mentality.

“Our freshman year, we had actually plenty of talent on the team — we had guys at PDA Academy and other academies and going to play DI in college and stuff — but there was just no motivation to win; nobody really seemed to care,” he said. “But I think as we got older and as newer players joined the team, we kind of developed a better mentality, and we really wanted to win. As we got more fans out to the game and we brought in some new coaches, we kind of brought it all together and we put more effort, I think, into it, and obviously coach (Ricky) Steeb did a great job orchestrating all that. I like to think we changed the mentality of our program.”

Montgomery’s determination this season culminated in the first SCT title for the program. The Cougars, playing in just their third title match and first since 2004, faced off against The Pingry School, a team playing in its 24th county final. Montgomery had lost to the Big Blue 2-1 earlier in the season but entered the final riding a wave of momentum that paid off.

It was a bittersweet victory for Epstein as the game ended with co-champions, but it was a monumental game nonetheless. Epstein says that winning the division title for the first time in 11 years was when the Cougars realized they could play with anyone.

“It was the first tournament or anything that I had won in high school, and it was the first one that coach Steeb had won and first time we won conference in 11 years for the school,” Epstein said. “So I felt like that was the hurdle we had been trying to get over the past two years, ever since we had kind of started being successful, and I felt like clearing that hurdle really got us to the next level.”

CN Boys Soccer: Ricky Steeb of Montgomery is Coach of the Year

Montgomery will graduate 10 seniors this June, a number of those players having been through a time when the Cougars couldn’t pay for a victory but saw what this team was capable of. Epstein hopes that the senior class leaves the legacy of a winning mentality.

“I hope our class leaves the legacy of mentality and work rate, the mentality that we can win and the belief that we can win, because you see it in teams that have won historically, it’s almost 50 percent belief that they can do that,” he said. “We have just as much talent as any other program any year, and so I hope that we instilled that belief in the younger players, and they can go forward and achieve even more than we did.”

Staff Writer Lauren Knego: lknego@gannettnj.com

Final Courier News Top 10

1. Scotch Plains-Fanwood (20-2-2)

2. Gill St. Bernard’s (18-4)

3. Pingry (12-4-3)

4. Montgomery (13-2-3)

5. South Plainfield (16-7-2)

6. Bernards (12-4-4)

7. Huntedon Central (9-5-4)

8. Westfield (9-7-2)

9. Bound Brook (11-4)

10. Plainfield (9-6-1)