Bloomfield HS boys soccer team enjoys good start

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — The Bloomfield High School boys soccer team has enjoyed a good start to the season.

The Bengals won their season opener Sept. 4, beating West Essex, 2-1. Marco Colasurdo scored the first goal off an assist from Nate Russell. Anthony Rizzi scored the game-winner with the assist coming from Noah Kelly.Goalkeeper Mike Hoovler played a great game in net, BHS head coach Mike Aiello stated.

The Bengals defeated Newark Academy, 1-0, in their second match of the season Sept. 6. Junior captain Nicholas Rizzi scored the only goal of the game after making a great tackle just outside of the box and then beat a defender before placing the ball right inside the far post. The back four of Owen Stockel, Aidan Schmidt, Kelly and Mike Gillespie had another strong game and Hoovler got his first shutout of the year.

The Bengals played an excellent Montclair Kimberley Academy team in their third match of the season, despite losing, 2-1, Sept. 9. “I was really impressed with our effort and performance in this match because we were missing multiple starters due to injury and still found ourselves ahead 1-0 in the final minutes of the match,” Aiello wrote in an email to the Independent Press. “Nicholas Rizzi scored on a set piece to put us ahead while our back four and keeper again played a strong game. MKA scored in the final minute of regulation to tie the game and then won it in double OT in the final seconds.”

The Bengals fell to Montclair, 3-0, Sept. 11 in the fourth match of the season to move to a 2-2 record.

The Bengals’ next match is Sept. 17 against Caldwell. “We had six days off leading up to this match and have had excellent training sessions,” Aiello stated. “Besides our captains, this is a young team with many of the players having either none or extremely limited varsity experience. Our captains, Anthony Rizzi, Noah Kelly, Marco Colasurdo and Nicholas Rizzi, have done an incredible job leading us so far this season. Our younger players are really benefiting from working with them everyday. The season is very young and we’re excited to see continued growth as a team.”