Seton Hall Prep to meet West Orange HS in ECT boys’ soccer semifinals

WEST ORANGE, NJ – The top-seeded Seton Hall Prep and No. 4 seed West Orange High School varsity boys’ soccer teams will meet in the semifinals of the  44th Essex County Tournament.

They will meet in the ECT semifinals doubleheader at Belleville HS on Wednesday, Oct. 25, at 5 p.m. The second ECT semifinal will pit second-seeded Montclair against third-seeded Millburn at 7 p.m. The championship game is Saturday, Oct. 28, at Caldwell HS at 5:30 p.m.

SHP defeated WOHS, 1-0, in overtime on a goal by Jon Ned on Oct. 9 at WOHS.

The Pirates won three matches last week, including two rounds of the ECT, to improve to 17-2-1 on the season.

On Monday, Oct. 16, the Pirates traveled to the Ironbound Recreation Center in Newark to take on East Side and defeated them, 3-1. After a scoreless first half, Jason Gomes opened the scoring with an unassisted goal with 31:00 left. Frank DeLuca made it 2-0 with 16:46 left on assists by Skyler Storms and Adam Silva. Adam Silva scored just 1:55 later on an assist by DeLuca to make it 3-0. East Side scored on a penalty kick with 9:00 left.

On Thursday, Oct. 19, they hosted No. 17 seed Newark Central in the first round of the ECT at the Brendan P. Tevlin Memorial Field and defeated them 7-2. In the first half, SHP jumped out to a 3-1 lead on goals by Aidan Dunphy, assisted by Adam Ned and Brian Zimmermann, Ned on an assist by Adam Silva, and Dunphy on assists by Ned and Adam Silva. In the second half, SHP scored four goals and Central scored one to make the final 7-2. Dunphy scored from Adam Silva, Duren Horsey scored from Tyler Davis, Nate Dean scored from Davis and Rafael de la Torre scored an own goal.

On Saturday, Oct. 21, they hosted No. 9 seed Columbia in the quarterfinal round of the ECT and defeated them 6-3. In less than a five minute stretch, SHP scored three goals and jumped out to a 3-0 lead to open the match. Dunphy scored from Adam Silva, Zimmermann scored unassisted, and Ned scored from Dunphy. With 11:44 left in the first half, Max Engelbrechtsen made it 4-0 on an assist by Nick Kriak to close out the scoring in the first half. Columbia made it 4-1 just :47 into the second half on a goal by Avery Coreschi, assisted by Donald Cameron. Rocco Capozza increased the SHP lead to 5-1 on assists by Ned and Dunphy. Columbia cut the lead to 5-3, scoring two goals in 1:32. Daniel Teitelbaum scored from Mack Turi and Coreschi scored from Joe Dente. SHP closed out the scoring when Adam Silva scored with 3:12 left on assists by Joe Cubero and Paul Silva.

The Pirates are ranked in the following polls:

TopDrawerSoccer.Com – New Jersey: #3, East Region: #4, Fab 50: #26.

USA Today/United Soccer Coaches – Region III: #7.

News12 – Varsity – New Jersey: #2,  Tri-State: #2.

The Star-Ledger/NJ.Com – New Jersey: #2, Non-Public Schools: #2, Super Essex Conference: #1.