Seton Hall Prep soccer team advances to state tournament semifinals

WEST ORANGE, NJ – The defending champion Seton Hall Prep varsity soccer team, seeded No. 2, defeated No. 7 seed St. Joseph of Montvale, 6-2, in the quarterfinal round of the NJSIAA North Jersey Non-Public “A” state tournament at Brendan P. Tevlin Memorial Field to improve to 20-2-1 on the season.

The Pirates will host will host No. 6 seed Bergen Catholic on Tuesday, Nov. 7, in the semifinal round at 2 p.m. The other semifinal pits No. 1 seed Delbarton hosting No. 5 seed Pingry. The final is Nov. 9.

After a scoreless first half, Max Engelbrechtsen opened the scoring just 2:48 into the second half from a pass from Adam Silva to give SHP a 1-0 lead. They increased the lead to 2-0 when Brian Zimmermann scored off of passes from Jon Ned and Aidan Dunphy.

Dunphy added an unassisted goal to make it 3-0 with 21:22 left. Freshman Lucas Ross scored his first varsity goal on an assist from Skyler Storms to make it 4-0.

St. Joe’s scored two goals to make it 4-2 with 8:22 left. Just 1:05 later Joe Cubero made the score 5-2 on assists by Frank DeLuca and Storms and Dunphy closed out the scoring with his second goal of the afternoon on an assist by West Orange resident Nick Kriak. Liam Bertrand had three saves while Anthony Petruzziello did not have a save for SHP.

SHP is ranked in the following polls: TopDrawerSoccer.com – #3 in NJ, #4 in the East Region, and #21 in the Fab 50/National Poll.

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

News 12-Varsity – #2 in NJ,  #2 in the Tri-State area.

NJ.Com – #2 in NJ, #2 in Non-Public Schools, #1 Super Essex Conference.