Glen Ridge’s Max Renteria, wearing a white uniform, battles for the ball against Cedar Grove’s Paul Skabich in the sectional final.
GLEN RIDGE, NJ — The Glen Ridge High School boys soccer team had a good run this season.
The eighth-seeded Ridgers lost at second-seeded Cedar Grove, 2-1, in overtime in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, North 2, Group 1, tournament on Nov. 11 to finish with a 6-12-1 record on the season.
The Ridgers were seeking their third straight sectional title. They played in a sectional final for the fourth straight year.
Glen Ridge defeated ninth-seeded West Side, 3-1, in the first round and defeated top-seeded North Arlington, 1-0, in the quarterfinals. GRHS eliminated fourth-seeded Verona in the semifinals in a penalty-kick shootout after the score was tied 2-2 at the end of regulation and two overtimes. Glen Ridge won the shootout by a 9-8 score.
GRHS second-year head coach Brian Ianni was proud of his team’s run.
“I am extremely proud of the grit, determination, and heart that this group of young men put into this season,” Ianni stated. “Having only two players with a large amount of varsity experience returning from our sectional championship team, they had something to prove. Many people looked at our record throughout the season and didn’t think much of us. Playing in the American Division of the SEC (Super Essex Conference) was a daunting task, but the guys remained competitive throughout it all. We struggled to score goals against the top teams in the state, but we remained confident and tweaked our formation halfway through the season, which really started to help us play better. The biggest thing was remaining confident and knowing that we wanted to start to peak at the right time, and that’s what we did. Beating an unbeaten Group 3 school in Garfield, after going down 1-0, let the guys know that they can score goals and we can play from behind when needed. They started to buy into what the coaches and I have been telling them, that they can absolutely get to a fourth straight sectional final.
“The experience we gained through our schedule really paid off in the state tournament,” continued Ianni. “Our defense played well and we continued to score goals that we were not scoring early on in the season. Once we took out the No. 1 seed in North Arlington the guys knew they would have a chance to make a run at a title. The game against Verona in the sectional semis might be one of the greatest games that I have been a part of. It was a great game between two great and evenly matched programs that ended in an epic shootout. It was unfortunate that someone had to lose that game, but I was proud of our boys for going on the road and performing as well as we did. The sectional final didn’t end as we hoped. Having to play a man down for the majority of the game was a challenge. Cedar Grove is a great team this year, and they would have been a difficult win with 11 on the field. To play them into overtime with a man down, and several opportunities to win the game just speaks to the heart these guys played with. I’ll truly miss this group of seniors for what they accomplished. They far exceeded the expectations of outsiders but successfully met the expectations I had of them.”
This year’s team was truly memorable, especially the seniors.
“The goal for our program every year is to get to that sectional final where anything can happen, and that’s what this group did for us. We graduate a great group of players highlighted by our goalie, Shoh Nishino; forwards Ciaran Bracken, Max Renteria, Carter Koenig; midfielders Brady McHale, Eddie Lipari, Connor Schubert; defenders Owen Brown, Gavin Chung; and our captains Alex Jordan, Cooper Sharp, Noah Munoz-Casati and Jack Robertson. Now we look to next year where we return a nucleus of players who started and obtained valuable playing time throughout the season. We expect big things from juniors such as Oliver Peake in the midfield, Nick Kilgen and John Lee in the back, as well as our sophomores Yuki Kishimoto, Nathan Latifi, Aiden Arnett and Matt Koskuba. With the experience they received this year, and the success of this season, we expect to be in a position to make another sectional final. We know that our North 2, Group 1, section is loaded with talented teams too and that we will have to put in the work to get back to this game.”
Photos Courtesy of Chris Troyano
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