Chomo’s hat trick lifts Schalick soccer to opening-round victory over Pennsville and a tasty reward
SOUTH JERSEY GROUP I TOURNAMENT
Wednesday’s first-round games
Schalick 9, Pennsville 0
Pitman 2, Maple Shade 1
Aubudon 1, Penns Grove 0
Haddon Twp. 1, Glassboro 0
Woodstown 4, Burlington City 0
Wildwood 2, Buena 1
Riverside 9, Gateway 1
Palmyra 5, Woodbury 0
Second-round games
Pitman at Schalick, Friday, 2 p.m.
Haddon Twp. at Audubon
Wildwood at Woodstown, Friday, 3 p.m.
Riverside vs. Palmyra
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
PITTSGROVE — For the record, Steve Chomo likes his steak medium rare.
That otherwise trivial piece of information became an important detail Wednesday after the top-seeded Schalick soccer team swamped Pennsville 9-0 in the opening round of the NJSIAA South Jersey Group I playoffs.
That’s because steak is on the menu after Chomo continued his current goal-scoring tear with his first career hat trick.
It’s all about motivation and Schalick assistant coach Mike D’Orio, a former Cougars striker, delivered a prime cut of it when he told Chomo before the game a steak dinner was in the offing if he scored a hat trick against the Eagles.
“I love steak,” Chomo said. “I think he wanted me to show out today and I just went out there and did my best.
“It was just out of nowhere, before the game, he said it. I think back when Mr. (Bruce) Konyak was coaching, he used to say if you had a diving header you got a steak dinner. I guess D’Orio continued that one.”
Chomo admitted he started thinking about a juicy ribeye “a little” after he scored two goals off rebounds in the first 22 minutes of the game to give the Cougars a 3-0 lead.
D’Orio and head coach Joe Mannella added the garnish at halftime when they reinforced the deal and the sophomore got his steak 10 minutes into the second half. He almost added the baked potato three minutes later with a bicycle kick that just went wide.
“It’s definitely some motivation,” D’Orio said. “Chomo’s starting to get out of his shell a little bit. I always hype him up at practice to try to do the best he can, so having that added motivation makes a player hungry on the field. And when you get that confidence from your coach it makes you want to play a lot better.
“He went out there, he got the job done and I’ll gladly pay up.”
His hat trick was Schalick’s third this season. Anthony Sepers got one against Woodstown and Louis Sepers got one against Penns Grove. But apparently previous purchases are not included in the deal.
“This was the first time I brought it up,” D’Orio said. “It might be a new thing we do for the year, we’ll see, I don’t know.”
Chomo has been on a roll of late. He has scored six of his 12 goals this season in the Cougars’ last three games. He’s scored six against Pennsville this season.
It’s been a combination of getting more opportunities with injuries to other strikers, getting more aggressive, his teammates getting him the ball and being in the right place at the right time.
“I don’t have anything against the Pennsville people,” Chomo said. “It may have felt like that, but I’ve got to give it really all to my teammates. They set me up with some great balls and I’ve just done my job.”
“With (Luke) Price going down and Lance (Creighton) not playing the whole season, Steve was going to have to step up and score goals for us and so far he has,” Mannella said. “Just keeping him hot and confidence is kind of what it’s all about right now. Any goal scorer being confident is huge and they’re confident in him. They know if they put it in front of the net, he’s going to deliver for them.”
The Cougars controlled the action from the opening kickoff. Chomo’s first two goals helped them build a 6-0 halftime lead. Louis Sepers opened the scoring five minutes into the game. Jaxon Weber, Reyli Reyes and Ethan Suppi also scored in the first half.
Bradford Foster, who assisted on Chomo’s third goal, made it 8-0 and keeper Evan Sepers came out of the goal to net the final goal of the match.
“You don’t want to come out and be sluggish and play down to the opponent and have to spend the next two days trying to get sharp,” Mannella said. “We had worked on some things in practice and they brought it right out to the field and their intensity was good. Everything was good, so now you just have to keep it sharp and focus on the next opponent.”
The Cougars (15-4) will host Pitman in the second round Friday at 2 p.m. The Panthers (13-5-1) beat Maple Shade 2-1 on Charlie Duffield’s goal two minutes into the second overtime.
| Pennsville (6-13) | 0 | 0 – | 0 |
| Schalick (15-4) | 6 | 3 – | 9 |
WOODSTOWN 4, BURLINGTON CITY 0: The third-seeded Wolverines (14-3-1) won their sixth in a row with leading scorer Adrian Ibarra scoring twice in the first seven minutes of the game and Ben Stengel posting the shutout. Five of the Wolverines’ wins in their current winning streak have come by shutout.
“We were at home and we wanted to establish that we can control the tempo and the pace and we did that right from the start,” Wolverines coach Darren Huck said. “Adrian found the back of the net early and that set the tempo even more for us.”
Ibarra scored his first goal off a cross from Blake Bialecki. His second came on a penalty kick after the Blue Devils knocked down a shot by Ibarra that was headed to the net with a hand. Ibarra now has 25 goals on the season, moving within one of tying Geoff Schaefer’s 2014 school record for goals by a junior.
Grant Prater moved back to the midfield upon the return of center back Dante Holmes and scored the first goal of the second half off a pass from Bialecki. Cole Lucas scored the Wolverines’ final goal. Bialecki has 14 assists this season.
With Holmes back in the lineup and directing the defense, keeper Stengel was rarely tested. “He controlled everything,” Huck said of Holmes.
The Wolverines now host No. 11 seeded Wildwood (12-5-1) at 3 p.m. on a busy Friday in Woodstown.
| Burlington City (6-11) | 0 | 0 – | 0 |
| Woodstown (14-3-1) | 2 | 2 – | 4 |
AUDUBON 1, PENNS GROVE 0: Ronald Homa’s first goal of the season was the game’s only goal in a match Penns Grove controlled much of the day. The goal came eight minutes before halftime.
That’s how the season has gone for the Red Devils (6-10-1). Of their 10 losses this year, eight have been decided by one goal.
| Penns Grove (6-10-1) | 0 | 0 – | 0 |
| Audubon (12-5-2) | 1 | 0 – | 1 |
Riverview Sports News 