Schalick scores two goals off rebounds to bounce archival Woodstown and maintain the top spot in South Jersey Group 1
BOYS SOCCER
Schalick 3, Woodstown 1
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
PITTSGROVE — Joe Mannella is constantly reminding his Schalick soccer players the value of collecting rebounds. Be in the right place at the right time enough times, the 300-win coach tells them, and the goals will come.
While long free kicks, even longer upfield runs to beat a defender one-on-one and headers off corner kicks are all the rage, there’s something to be said about being Johnny-on-the-spot. The Cougars scored two second-half goals off rebounds Tuesday and they provided the margin of victory in their 3-1 win over archival Woodstown.
“They’re there every game,” Mannella said. “We talk about it to these guys all the time that if you just do nothing but go for rebounds you’ll get double-digit goals.
“These guys all want the highlight-reel goals. You saw how many balls went 20 feet over the net and 20 feet wide because they’re trying to (do something spectacular). Sometimes it’s just get to the front of the net and get a rebound and put it in the back of the net.”
Tyler Vanlier broke a 1-1 tie when he rushed in to collect a shot Marco Spinnato banged off the crossbar five minutes into the second half. Spinnato made it 3-1 six minutes later when he followed Josh Stecher’s shot that bounced back into play off Woodstown keeper Lee Coombs’ chest for his second goal of the game.
“That’s part of playing your role,” Manella said. “That strike for Tyler and Marco and those guys up there, their job is to follow shots because there are going to be rebounds.”
But sending a rebound back home is harder than it looks. You’ve got to think, too, the last thing anyone wants to do is whiff or airmail it when the whole goal is in front of you. It’d be like a defensive lineman scooping up and fumble and rumbling 50, 60 yards and then fumbling before he crosses the goal line.
“Yeah, because you’re thinking about it,” Spinnato said. “People think when you’re in front of the goal and stuff it’s just an easy tap in; it’s so much more than that. The ball’s bouncing, you’re playing weird bounces and stuff, you’re on a field that’s all mushy and stuff, I put those in as factors, so, yes, it’s hard.”
“It is kind of hard because you’ve got to be in the right place at the right time; you’ve just gotta be there,” Vanlier said. “I was trying to predict it (on his). I thought (the original shot) was going to go in, but I was there just in case.”
Spinnato now has 16 career goals. Nine have come against Salem County teams. He’s scored at least one goal in four of the Cougars’ last six games.
“My job is to put goals in the back of the net; I feel like that’s what I’m doing right now,” it doesn’t matter against whom, he said. “Losing (Luke) Price I have to step up in some ways and I feel like today I kind of like really put that into my head and I tried to score, and I think I did pretty good.”
Spinnato scored the first goal of the game when pushed one past Coombs from the doorstop less than four minutes into the match. Woodstown’s Nick DiTeodoro got the equalizer five minutes before halftime when he moved down the right wing and ripped one of those highlight-reel goals into the upper left corner from the right side of the box.
Schalick controlled the play, especially in the second half, outshooting the Wolverines 21-11.
“He’s got a very talented team there and they definitely controlled possession,” Huck said of his buddy Mannella. “We discussed it at halftime. They’re going to control possession on us, but we just needed to keep working. The few opportunities that we get, when we could break something down, we were going for it, but like I said, they’ve got a heck of a team and they showed it today.”
| Woodstown (5-4-1) | 1 | 0- | 1 |
| Schalick (5-2) | 1 | 2- | 3 |
GOALS: Marco Spinnato (S), 3:40; Nick DiTeodoro (WO), 35:00; Tyler Vanlier (S), 45:02; Marco Spinnato (S), 51:06.
