Off Script: Middletown South Boys Soccer Works Overtime for Spot in Group 3 Final

MOORESTOWN — For the entire season, a one-goal lead for Middletown South has meant an insurmountable deficit for its opponent. When the Eagles scored the first goal of the NJSIAA South Jersey Group III semifinal at Moorestown on Tuesday, their place in the Group III championship game seemed secured.

Middletown South is indeed going to its first NJSIAA Group championship game on Saturday, but it was not its unrelenting defense that finished the job on Tuesday. It was its unstoppable scoring duo.

The only players on the field who could contain senior Luke Strada and junior Connor Saul were one another, as the two combined on the two Middletown South goals, including Strada’s game-winning golden goal in the fourth minute of overtime that sent the Eagles to a 2-1 win over the Quakers and into Saturday’s Group III championship game against Ramapo.

“That’s the big difference between this year’s team and last year’s team,” Middletown South coach Dan Riverso said, referring to the return of Strada from the MLS Next program and the emergence of Saul as a top scoring threat in the Shore Conference. “The ability to change the game on the drop of a dime. Last year, we were looking for somebody to do that. This year, we have two guys who do it regularly.”

Moorestown could be forgiven for failing to stop Middletown South’s two greatest scoring threats since the Quakers were playing with 10 men for the final 3:44 of game time thanks to a red card in the final minute of regulation.

With the Quakers playing a man down after already surviving a 10-2 disparity in shots prior to the red card, Middletown South junior Brody Illingworth drew a foul on the right side of the field late in the third minute of overtime. Senior Jack Cohen launched the ensuing free kick into the box, and Strada was the first to get a head on the ball. He then spotted it near the left post and made a sliding play on the ball as Saul arrived at the same time. Strada and Saul both threw their legs at the ball and collided with the post along with Moorestown goalkeeper Ryan Takio as the ball crossed the goal line.

“Chaotic,” Strada said, recalling the play. “It was a scrum in front of the net, and me and Connor were both going for the ball, and I saw him go toward the goalie where the ball was going, and he made a play on the ball. I was just kind of sliding the middle of the goal, knowing it would end up there. I fell, and I just went right through the ball. It was lucky, but that’s how it is sometimes.”

Moorestown’s players and coaches contended that the play should have stopped when the goal structure moved upon the three-way player collision, but the officials determined that the ball crossed the goal line before the goal moved.

“Everything was in front of me so I saw everything happen,” Strada said. “To be honest, I’m not sure what they were trying to argue. I was just trying to go through the ball, it was slippery, so that had a lot to do with everyone sliding everywhere. All I know is, I saw the ball go in the net. I didn’t even realize we hit the post or the goal moved.”

Moorestown tied the game with 6:56 left on a 20-yard volley by sophomore Caleb Smith that he buried to the left side netting. It was just the second goal allowed by Middletown South during the NJSIAA Tournament, and it marked the latest point in any tournament game that Middletown South was tied with the exception of the Shore Conference Tournament final, which went to penalty kicks after a 0-0 tie.

“We haven’t been in that spot a lot,” Strada said. “Usually, we hold the 1-0 lead. So it’s different for us, but stuff happens. You’ve just got to keep the same game plan and keep going at it.”

“The first reaction is that you’re sad because we were close to winning,” Strada said. “Then, I was actually excited to have the opportunity to go and score. I knew we’d win…I think. Maybe not if we didn’t get the red card, but that completely changed the momentum.”

Middletown South nearly won it in the final minute of regulation, when Saul got loose on a breakaway. He was taken down just outside the top of the 18-yard box, with the center official ruling that Saul was denied an obvious goal-scoring opportunity, which warranted a red card. Saul took the shot on the direct kick and fired it over the crossbar with 20 seconds left.

“It’s a hard free kick to go up and over and that’s what I said to Connor,” Strada said. “He was like, ‘Well, I can go up and over.’ And I was like, ‘Fine, alright dude.’ I obviously wanted to take it, but I trust Connor just as much, so it’s not like it’s a big deal. I was just going to try to find the far post, because it’s hard to go up and over the wall from that close.”

Saul also scored Middletown South’s first goal, which came in the 20th minute. Senior Matteo Gallina served a corner kick inside the six-yard box, and after the ball rattled around near the goal, Saul back-heeled a shot into the net.

Strada called Middletown South’s first-half performance one of the best 40-minute stretches his team has played all season. The Eagles outshot Moorestown, 9-1, and owned a 6-1 advantage in corner kicks, but had only a 1-0 lead to show for it. Prior to Saul’s goal, Takio made a diving save on a clean look by Strada in the 10th minute and then watched a low, 18-yard strike by Saul skip just wide of the left post.

Takio later delivered two other key saves in the half, with the first coming on a close-range shot by Saul and the other on chip by Strada that Takio barely got a hand on enough to alter its path away from the goal.

“That was the best I’ve ever felt us play,” Strada said. “We were moving, and it kind of just flattened out in the second half. It happens, but they had the home field and the crowd and that can get a team back in the game sometimes. They didn’t have a ton of chances, but all you need is one to get back in the game. They scored the one they got.”

“It’s only 1-0, so it’s a dangerous lead,” Riverso said. “We should have been up, in my opinion, more than 1-0 in the first half. We could have put it away, but we didn’t. They were the No. 1 team in South Jersey, so they are in the state semifinal for a reason, and you can’t leave good teams in a game with spirit, with the crowd, at their home field feeling like they are still in the game when they were really not in the game during the first half. We gave them that hope by not killing the game off in the first half.”

In the second half, Moorestown’s defense shut down the runs by Strada that caused the Quakers problems in the first half and held more of the possession as a result. That possession, however, did not lead to shots, as the Quakers manufactured only one in the half: the tying strike by Smith.

“The message after regulation was to stop allowing them to do what they wanted to do, which was get fouls, stop the play, fragment our game, so that we couldn’t play,” Riverso said. “Obviously, they had a man sent off, so it was a little bit easier to knock it around, but we were getting through and that just goes to show, just like we didn’t start off the season great, we know how to show a little bit of resilience, and I think that’s what happened here.”

The goal by Moorestown is just the third allowed by the Eagles defense in the last 13 games and only the second goal allowed during the NJSIAA Tournament. The only other tournament game in which Middletown South found itself tied as late in the game as the Eagles were on Tuesday was the Shore Conference Tournament final against Colts Neck.

Middletown South’s defense looked different on Tuesday due to the absence of junior center back Charlie Welsh, who injured his foot against Colts Neck in Friday’s sectional championship win. Cohen moved from midfield to starting center back to cover for Welsh, then moved back to midfield later in the game, with sophomore Luke DeStefano filling in the center back spot. Junior Grant Pipercic and senior Joey Fielding saw greater roles on Tuesday as well.

While the defense was nearly flawless but for a perfect strike from Smith, it was Middletown South’s top two scorers who saved the day. Coming off a hat trick in Friday’s sectional championship game, Saul scored his fifth goal of the last three rounds and ran his season total to a team-high 16 goals. Strada, meanwhile, scored his 12th goal of the season to go with his 10 assists. Middletown South is now 3-0-1 this season when playing overtime.

“Sometimes these guys can have a quiet half or a bad 10 minutes, but you leave them on the field with the hope that they stretch the team out or that they have that one moment of brilliance,” Riverso said of Strada and Saul. “Nine times out of ten, those two do. It’s nice to have them together and be able to do that.”