Old Bridge boys soccer avenges loss to South Brunswick
SOUTH BRUNSWICK - It was only a matter of time before the Old Bridge High School boys soccer team started to hit its stride.
After starting the season 1-4-1, the Knights have gone 7-0-1 over their last eight games, and their latest victim was Greater Middlesex Conference Red Division rival South Brunswick on Thursday. Old Bridge picked up the victory, 2-1, avenging a 2-1 loss to South Brunswick on Sept. 20.
"What we did today is we didn't make mistakes," Old Bridge coach Chris McGrath said. "For the first game they scored the same goal twice on breakaways, obviously our emphasis was defense. We know the guys we have in the field were going to get a couple of chances during the game, and if we can put one or two of them in, then it's up to the defense to kind of just hold strong."
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Sual Downes got things started for the Knights with less than 30 seconds left in the first half. Old Bridge was awarded a free kick, and as the ball was headed towards the net, Jayson DeNovellis got his head on it, but South Brunswick goalie Nick Hoffman couldn't corral the shot and Downes kicked the rebound in for the 1-0 lead.
"We've been playing well, so we knew it was going to be a war," Downes said. "But we felt good about winning, we thought we were going to win, we played very well."
Old Bridge struck again in the 67th minute when Sam Chernov sent a pass to Christian McCartney, who chipped it into the upper left corner of the net for a 2-0 lead.
"We finished our chances this time and executed well," McCartney said.
South Brunswick got one back with 1:54 remaining in the game. Kunal Thakral took a pass from Dylan Inguardi and headed toward the goal. Old Bridge goalie Mark Akselrud came out of the net to challenge, but Thakral sent the shot wide and into the left corner of the net for the 2-1 final.
The Knights had another chance at scoring in the first half when they were awarded a penalty kick with 16:43 remaining. One of South Brunswick's players made a goal-line save, that the referees charged was a hand ball. The Vikings were dealt a red card and had to play a man down the rest of the game. Joel Quist lined up to take the penalty kick, but Hoffman made the save.
"The boys have worked hard, we're delighted with the performance and the effort," McGrath said. "It was a little controversial early in the first half, but I thought we created more chances today, I thought we attacked better, I thought our key players performed well, and we managed to stay healthy."
Old Bridge has been averaging three goals a game in its last seven victories and has outscored opponents 23-6 with three shutouts, one being a 0-0 tie against Monroe. Quist leads the team with eight goals and three assists, while Gregg Johnson has tallied seven goals and two assists so far this season. All in all, 15 players have at least one point this season, with 10 players having two or more points.
"We realize this is our year to win it all. We have a very good team this year," McCartney said. "We have a lot of seniors, so we realized we could make it far this year. Everything is changing."
For the Knights, the goal this season is to win. The team has been working hard, and they expect to make some noise when the GMC Tournament starts next week.
"Someone said Cinderella, we're not Cinderella, Old Bridge is real," McGrath said. "We did have a bumpy start, but it was bumpy because we didn't take our chances, and we made one or two mistakes and two double overtime games back to back, for most team that would be a knockout blow. We have a good philosophy going, they're buying into it, and we're just trying to stay positive and healthy for a playoff run."
Staff Writer Lauren Knego: lknego@gannettnj.com; on Twitter: @laurenknego