CORRECTED: Seton Hall Prep soccer team clinches seventh SEC-American Division title

Correction: The Seton Hall Prep soccer team won its seventh SEC-American title

WEST ORANGE, NJ — The Seton Hall Prep soccer team went 2-1 last week, including clinching the Super Essex Conference-American Division title. The Pirates’ current record is 12-1-1.

In addition, the Pirates received the No. 1 seed in the Essex County Tournament. They will host a quarterfinal game on Saturday, Oct. 12, against an opponent to be determined.

On Tuesday, Oct. 1, the Pirates traveled to the Ironbound Recreation Center in Newark to take on East Side and defeated the Red Raiders, 4-0. Aidan Dunphy scored on a header on assists by Lucas Ross and Shane Farrell with 24:09 left in the second half to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead. Ross made it 2-0 with an unassisted goal with 14:53 left. With 6:27 left, David Schuster scored on assists by Edward Kelly and Zaiden James and Kelly scored 33 seconds later on an assist by Schuster.

Tomas Hut and Aidan Batista each had a save to complete the shutout.

With this victory, Seton Hall captured its seventh SEC-American Division title.

After the game, Dunphy said, “It feels good to win the SEC-American Division title. We will stay focused when we play in the counties and states.”

SHP head coach Marty Berman said, “I am very proud of the accomplishment of the team because I feel this is the best conference in the state. We have now captured the first leg of the treble. We will now go into the county and states and try to capture those other two legs.”

On Thursday, Oct. 3, the Pirates hosted West Orange at Brendan P. Tevlin Memorial Field. Seton Hall won, 1-0, on a rainy and foggy afternoon as Will Monroy scored on assists by Sal Vito and Gio Amato with 31:19 left in the match. Hut had two saves to record the clean sheet while Nikolai Matthews had seven saves for West Orange.

For the first time in the history of the SEC-American Division, a champion of the division did not allow a goal by its division opponents.

On Saturday, Oct. 5, the Pirates played Christian Brothers Academy at Soccer Park at Pittser Field at Montclair State University. They lost to the Colts, 1-0, on a goal with 2:59 left in the second half.

The Pirates are ranked in the following polls:

TopDrawerSoccer.com: Fab 50 National – No. 12; East Region – No. 4; New Jersey – No. 4.

USA Today/United States Soccer Coaches Super 25 – National – Also receiving votes, Region III – No. 6.   Star Ledger – No. 2 New Jersey, No. 2 Non-Public Schools, No. 1 – SEC.