WEST ORANGE, NJ — The top-seeded Seton Hall Prep last week defeated No. 17-seeded Cedar Grove, 3-0, in the first round and No. 8 seed Newark East Side, 4-1, in the quarterfinal round in the Essex County Tournament to raise its record to 11-0-1 on the season. Both matches were held at Brendan P. Tevlin Memorial Field in West Orange.
Against Cedar Grove, junior Joaquin Niehenke opened up the scoring with 21:06 left in the first half on an assist by senior Drew Ligotti. Senior Edward Zazzali scored on a header off of a cross from senior David Schuster with 15:41 left. In the second half, Schuster scored on assists by Ligotti and senior Edward Dolgov with 33:40 left. Senior goalie Aidan Batista did not record a save, while junior Aidan Donovan recorded one save to give the Pirates their eighth clean sheet of the season.
On Saturday, Oct. 9, against East Side, the Pirates opened the scoring with 8:08 left in the first half when senior Brian Sheehan headed in a Niehenke corner kick. The Red Raiders tied the score at 1-1 with 3:32 left in the first half. Seton Hall took a 2-1 lead with 29:59 left in the second half on a free kick. They increased their lead to 3-1 just :59 later when Sheehan scored off of a rebound of his own shot. Zazzali and Niehenke had assists on the play. The Pirates closed out the scoring when junior Luca Chirichiello scored off of assists by Zazzali and Niehenke with 19:20 left.
Seton Hall will face No. 4 seed Montclair on Tuesday night, Oct. 12, at Caldwell High School at 5 p.m. in the semifinal. In the other semifinal, No. 2 seed Livingston takes on No. 3 seed West Orange at 7 p.m.The final will be held at Belleville HS on Saturday, Oct. 16.
Other results from the quarterfinals: Livingston defeated No. 7 seed Columbia, 5-1, West Orange edged No. 11 seed Newark Academy, 1-0, and Montclair nipped No. 12 seed Verona, 1-0.
SHP top scorers: Niehenke: 8 goals, 9 assists, Schuster: 7 goals, 4 assists, Sheehan: 5 goals, 5 assists, and Ligotti: 4 goals, 8 assists, and senior Charles Giordano: 4 goals, 6 assists.
SHP rankings: Star-Ledger: No. 2 in New Jersey, No. 2 Non-Public Schools, and No. 1 Super Essex Conference. PrepSoccer.net: No. 9 in Fab 50 National, No. 5 in East Region, and No.4 in New Jersey. USA Today/United Soccer Coaches: No. 23 in Super 25 National, No. 4 in Region III.
Photo Courtesy of Rich Morris/SHP
Top-seeded Seton Hall Prep soccer team advances to ECT semifinals added by Jeff Goldberg on
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