The Pirates celebrate the championship.
WEST ORANGE, NJ — On a chilly evening at William “Doc Ellis” Memorial Field at Belleville High School, the Seton Hall Prep soccer team defeated West Orange High School, 2-0, in the 47th Essex County Tournament to capture its seventh ECT title.
Senior David Schuster opened the scoring with 34:25 left in the first half. Senior Brian Sheehan threw the ball to senior Zaiden James, who flicked it to Schuster, who turned and fired his eighth goal of the season.
In the second half, senior Charles Giordano scored with 5:38 left to secure the victory. Schuster played the ball to Sheehan, who played the ball to Giordano, who raced down the right flank and fired a shot inside the far post for his fifth goal of the season. Senior goalie Aidan Batista recorded his second consecutive shutout of the season.
Following the match, Giordano said, “It feels amazing to finally seal the game when it is so intense at the end. This victory means a lot, especially after the hard year last year.” Schuster added, “Our coaches made a new formation for us before the game and I had a lot of space in the middle and that really opened up everything.” Senior Zaiden James commented, “It was definitely a tough match tonight. We worked very hard at practice over the last several days preparing for this and we needed to fight for every ball. Our back line and our goalie, Aidan Batista, kept a really good West Orange team off of the scoreboard which was one of our goals tonight.”
SHP head coach Marty Berman said, “We knew what we were in for. West Orange is as good as advertised. We practiced on our field using the lacrosse and football lines preparing for tonight which I feel really helped us. Our defense and goalie, Aidan Batista, really stepped up to the challenge of a very tough West Orange team, especially Ari Rosu, who has an unbelievable throw and can cause chaos in the box. I have heard this from other coaches for years, winning a state title is great, but you have to take care of your backyard-bragging rights first. Essex County is a very hard county to win. There are a lot of challenges, especially at the top.”
On Tuesday night, Oct. 12, at Bonnel Field at Caldwell HS in West Caldwell in the semifinals of the ECT, the Pirates defeated Montclair, 1-0. Sophomore Eddie Krupski scored his fourth goal of the season off of a scramble in front with 9:55 left in the first half. Following the match, Krupski said, “It was awesome when the ball was served into the box. I saw the ball right in front of me and had to take the opportunity and fired it as hard as I could into the back of the net.” As soon as I saw the ball cross the goal line, it was an amazing feeling.” Berman added, “We have been defensively good all year and our kids held tough especially in the second half when a very good Montclair team put a lot of pressure on us and we withstood it.”
Notes: This was Seton Hall Prep’s 12th ECT finals appearance while West Orange was in its seventh final. This was the Pirates’ seventh consecutive finals appearance. This was the third meeting in the finals between the Pirates and the Mountaineers. West Orange won, 4-1, in 2006, while the Pirates won in 2010 by a 2-1 score. Berman commented on Belleville High School field. “The surface is beautiful, it’s gorgeous. The ball plays really well on here.”
Photos Courtesy of Rich Morris/SHP
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