Penns Grove heartbroken after Pitman scores game-winner in final minute; top seeds Schalick, Woodstown win handily; Pennsville shut out
SJ GROUP I BOYS SOCCER
Tuesday’s First-Round Games
Schalick 7, Cape May Tech 0
Pitman 2, Penns Grove 1
Audubon 5, Gateway 1
Haddon Twp. 6, Pennsville 0
Palmyra 7, Woodbury 1
Riverside 4, Glassboro 2
Wildwood 5, Maple Shade 0
Woodstown 7, Clayton 1
Friday’s Quarterfinals
(8) Pitman at (1) Schalick
(5) Audubon at (4) Haddon Twp.
(6) Riverside at (3) Palmyra
(7) Wildwood at (2) Woodstown
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
PITMAN – The nature of playoff sports is such that one minute you’re planning for an extended stay and the next your whole world comes tumbling down.
The way Tuesday’s South Jersey Group 1 playoff game was playing out, Penns Grove boys soccer coach Mano Massari was prepared for overtime and even had his penalty kicks shootout strategy lined up should it come to that.
It all looked like it was going that way. Then Pitman punched in a goal off a corner kick in the final minute of regulation and all those plans came crashing to the ground.
Jaiden Ammons nudged a corner kick from Jake Bowen-Aswin through a crowd in the box and past Penns Grove keeper Dwayne Guzman to give the Panthers a 2-1 win. Inside the final minute was the best estimate on the time of the game-winner since Alcyon Park has no working scoreboard clock.
“79th minute” is the way it read in the scorebook.
Whether it was one minute, one second or one hour, it was as crushing a defeat as Massari has endured in his soccer career as a player or a coach.
“It was 100 percent the toughest loss of our season,” he said. “It’s crushing. It’s crushing to watch my guys drop to the ground and cry. It’s tough. A lot of these guys, this is all they’ve got.
“This team, they’re family. My guys go through a lot outside of school and they deal with a lot. When I tell you this team really is a family, I mean it, man. It’s heartbreaking to watch them go through that.”
Massari described the game as an “absolute all-out war.” The ninth-seeded Red Devils (8-10) grabbed a 1-0 lead on freshman Juan Ortiz’ fifth goal of the season in the 49th minute. Bowen-Ashwin tied it for the Panthers (10-8-1) nine minutes later.
It stayed that with until the final minute of regulation.
The decisive kick came from Penns Grove’s left defensive corner. Bowen-Ashwin sent the ball into the box. Guzman came off the line and took a swipe at it with his left arm, but Ammons was crashing the goal and deflected it back into the net. It was similar to an overtime goal he scored at Pennsville in September.
“I really wasn’t expecting it to land on my head,” Ammons told Brian Tortella of SJGloryDays. “I just closed my eyes and prayed for the best. Somehow, it landed on my head and it went in.”
“I have a little team, they’re not the biggest guys in the world,” Massari said. “I have two guys above 5-8, 5-9 and they (Pitman) made a play in the box and they buried it. … It just wasn’t in our cards today I guess.”
With the win, Pitman moves on to play at top-seeded Schalick in the quarterfinals Friday.
SCHALICK 7, CAPE MAY TECH 0: The Cougars wasted no time getting on the scoreboard and it touched off a six-goal barrage in the first half that carried the bracket’s top seed to an easy first-round victory over the 16.
Luke Price stole the ball just outside of his 18, took it the length of the field and beat the keeper only 25 seconds into the match. He scored twice more in the final 10 minutes of the half to complete his second hat trick of the season.
“Coming off a tough win versus Cumberland we needed to walk the next team off the field no matter the rank,” Price said. “As coach said in our pre-game, ‘Energy from the start, everyone,’ so I knew we needed to get off to a great start.
“(The first goal) brings me back to my freshman year scoring a 31-second goal. It’s great to score that first goal quick.”
But the Cougars didn’t stop there. Mike Nelson made it 2-0 on a header off an Anthony Sepers cross, followed by goals from Oscar Hernandez and Reyli Reyes. J.T. Fleming scored in the second half.
“We tried to focus on being sharp and executing today and really from the first minutes of the game they were fairly locked in,” Cougars coach Joe Mannella said. “As good of an effort as you can expect first round.
“I was worried about guys doing some things they couldn’t get away with in a different game. But everybody played well, executed and stuck to what we do and we did it well. It was really all we could have hoped for today.”
The Cougars (18-2) now host eighth-seeded Pitman in Friday’s quarterfinals.
WOODSTOWN 7, CLAYTON 1: Adrian Ibarra and Bryce Ayars gave Woodstown a comfortable 2-0 halftime lead, but the Wolverines erupted for five goals in the second half to completely take control of the game.
Ibarra, Ayden Ellis, Ben Lippincott, Sid Leevy and freshman Josh Olbrich notched the goals in the second half. For Ibarra, his two goals left him with 48 for his career.
“Obviously we became more efficient with our shooting, with our percentages, but we were moving better without the ball,” Wolverines coach Darren Huck explained of the second-half uprising. “We were crashing the net more and really getting lots of movement and bodies inside the 18.
“In the first half we were getting some quality looks, but we were getting a little bit wide here and there and we weren’t creating enough confusion in the final third. We definitely did that in the second half.”
And the better movement created some luck. Ellis’ goal came after he beat the goalie, hit the back post and the rebound richocheted off the keeper’s back and into the goal.
Leevy’s goal was a brilliant 19-yard free kick around the defensive wall just inside the post to answer the Clippers’ goal. Olbrich’s goal came on a penalty kick and made him the 291st player in school history to score a varsity goal.
It was a legacy goal of sorts. Olbrich’s father, brother and sister are all enshrined on the recently unveiled Woodstown Soccer Wall of Fame.
“We had good balance today,” Huck said.
The second-seeded Wolverines (15-4) now host Wildwood in Friday’s quarterfinals.
SJ GROUP 2 BOYS SOCCER
Haddon Heights 7, Salem Tech 0
VOLLEYBALL
SJ GROUP 2 VOLLEYBALL
Seneca 2, Salem Tech 0 (25-2, 25-11)
Riverview Sports News 