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Neptune lifts Bernards boys soccer over Somerville

Lauren Knego
@laurenknego
Bernards' Nick Neptune (23) and Somerville goalkeeper Will Sokol battle near the net for control of the ball on Thursday.

SOMERVILLE - Nick Neptune scored the lone goal and the defense made it stand up as the Bernards High School boys soccer team defeated Somerville 1-0 in a Skyland Conference Valley Division matchup on Thursday afternoon.

Bernards (6-1) won its fifth straight game and posted its fourth shutout of the season. The loss snapped a two-game win streak for Somerville (5-4).

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After attacking for most of the first half, the Mountaineers finally pushed through the Somerville defense with 15 minutes to play in the game. Bernards was awarded a free kick that Dan Paez sent into the box, where Neptune was waiting. Neptune got his head on the ball and sent it past Pioneers goalie Will Sokol for the 1-0 advantage.

"I got switched over to the right, we got a free kick, played it short, I knew (Paez) was going to play it in, so I just made a run across and got my head on it," Neptune said. "We knew (Somerville was) going to play really defensive, they were going to try and keep a clean sheet, we just had to keep attacking and we got the goal."

Paez, who is tied with Neptune with a team-leading eight goals, had at least two Somerville players defending him all times during the game, so when he prepared to take the free kick, he knew that he was taking some pressure off of the Mountaineers' offense.

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"I realized I had two guys on me and we found out (Nick) would be kind of free, so I was caught up on getting it perfectly in the box," Paez said. "We've been working on our pattern plays, and somehow we managed to play on a small field and pull it off, and I'm glad I found him in the box to score the one goal to get us through."

According to Somerville coach Bryan Smith, his team was without its top two scorers on Thursday, so a strong defense was the name of the game for the Pioneers against a potent Bernards offense that has scored 17 goals in its last four games.

"We knew we could compete, we held Gill St. Bernard's at the beginning of the season to a 1-0 game here, so we had confidence knowing that we could play with anybody," Smith said. "We were without our top two scorers today, so that was a big impact that we didn't have as much of a scoring threat, it definitely showed but our defense held strong, one little mistake in the back there cost us a goal, but we played extremely well as a team."

The Pioneers had started the season 3-0 before suffering a three-game skid. Somerville looked like it had left those losses behind in its last two games, where it scored a combined seven goals and posted two shutouts. But even though the winning streak came to an end against the Mountaineers, Smith was able to pull some positives from the loss.

"To compete with a top team in the county, the talent that they have on that team and the threats that they have on that team are incredible," Smith said. "Being able to hold that and really shut them down and not give them too many opportunities, that's a big thing, knowing that we were still able to hold that defensively, didn't break down, it's just a huge confidence boost. It's not fun to lose but it's one of those losses that you kind of still have to take something positive out of, and we definitely can."

Staff Writer Lauren Knego: lknego@gannettnj.com; on Twitter: @laurenknego