Southern rides defense, timely scoring past Eastern and into South Group 4 sectional final

STAFFORD — With Eastern possessing a trio of 40-goal scorers and the Vikings likely to employ a zone defense at the other end of the field, Southern entered Thursday’s sectional semifinal knowing its fate would rest on the shoulders of its defenders.

With a trip to the championship game on the line, Southern’s core group of eight defenders rose to the occasion to send the Rams back to a sectional final.

Senior midfielder Joe Kessler scored a team-high three goals while senior goalie AJ Mattern made 11 saves to back up a staunch defensive effort that led No. 2 seed Southern to a 10-8 victory over No. 3 Eastern in the NJSIAA South Group 4 semifinals.

With Southern trailing 3-2 early in the second quarter, Kessler scored the game-tying and go-ahead goals before freshman Niko Iliescu and sophomore Kyle Sininsky scored to complete a four-goal run that gave the Rams the lead for good. From there, Mattern made several key stops while senior defensemen Anthony Oddo and Kody Wagner, sophomore defenseman Lucas Iorio, sophomore LSM Lukas Iliescu, senior short-stick defensive midfielders Evan Wyrsch and Ryan Paliga, and sophomore SSDM Chris Hughes combined to prevent Eastern from mounting a comeback.

“We came into this season saying our defense is the best it’s been in years,” Kessler said. “This is the best team we’ve had since 2022, the most complete team we’ve had in a while. The defense has our back and the offense has their back. We’re always playing on two feet.”

“This is one of the better defenses we’ve had and they’ve kind of carried us at times this year,” Southern head coach John Pampalone said. “Our schedule has helped them because they’ve played against big-time players pretty much all year, so they’re not surprised by anything. We knew our defense had to get us the ball. Eastern went to a zone and then started to play a little slower, and our defense came up huge.”

Sininsky finished with two goals and three assists and sophomore attackman Cash McVey recorded two goals and two assists. Niko Iliescu, senior attackman Liam Griffin, and sophomore attackman Shea O’Donnell scored one goal apiece. The balanced scoring and timely defense helped offset a four-goal game by Eastern senior midfielder Chase Huggard and a 14-for-21 performance at the X by junior FOGO Marc Brocious.

Southern will play top-seeded Kingsway in the South Group 4 sectional final on Tuesday in Woolwich. The Dragons won 14-4 over Washington Township in the other semifinal to improve to 21-0. They are the only undefeated team in the state.

“I’m really proud of the way this group has come together,” Pampalone said. “It’s a weird mix with 15 seniors, no juniors, and a bunch of freshmen and sophomores. It was a group that was in two parts coming into the season but they’ve come around to where we’re one team now. I’m just really proud of the effort and how hard they played. Eastern is a very good team and we knew it was going to be like this.”

It was back and forth all afternoon with McVey giving Southern an early lead off a setup from Sininsky before Eastern answered on a goal by junior attackman Kieran Duffy, one of the Vikings’ aforementioned 40-goal scorers. Griffin put Southern up 2-1 after a great clear and assist from Wyrsch, but Eastern responded on a goal by sophomore attackman Nico Spina off a pass from Huggard to make it 2-2 after the first quarter.

The Vikings grabbed their first and only lead of the game when Brocious won the second-quarter face-off and dished to Huggard for a goal just seven seconds in. Just over three minutes later, Kessler took a pass from Sininsky and scored to tie the game 3-3. Ninety seconds later, Wyrsch executed another one-man clear to create a transition run, and Kessler finished the play by taking a pass from O’Donnell and burying his shot for a 4-3 Southern lead.

“(Eastern) did a great job riding and 10-manned us a little,” Pampalone said. “They weren’t allowing many open passes so we had to go to some one-man clears and Evan was able to get to the middle of the field and push, and we got a couple of goals out of it. We didn’t have many failed clears today and Evan Wyrsch was a big part of that.”

Niko Iliescu scored off a setup from McVey at 5:43 of the second quarter for a 5-3 lead, and Sininsky followed with a goal off another pass by McVey for a 6-3 advantage. Huggard scored his second of the game off an assist from Duffy with 1:27 left in the half.

Southern led 6-4 at halftime but Eastern was able to close the gap to 6-5 when Huggard scored 46 seconds into the third quarter. That was as close as the Vikings would get. Southern regained a three-goal lead when Kessler completed his hat trick at 8:49 and O’Donnell scored off the rebound of a shot by McVey with 2:01 left in the third quarter.

Eastern won the fourth quarter with a 3-2 edge, but it was Southern’s best quarter in how it was able to make plays at key moments. Whether a save by Mattern, a timely forced turnover, or a goal to re-establish control, the Rams made it happen in all the clutch moments.

A cross-checking penalty on Southern with 9:25 left in the fourth quarter gave Eastern its first extra-man opportunity of the game and junior attackman Bruce Magladry made it count with a goal off a feed from Duffy to cut Southern’s lead to 8-6. The Rams continued to respond and made it 9-6 on Sininsky’s goal with 6:10 to play.

Huggard netted his fourth of the game at 4:13 to make it 9-7. McVey got it back less than two minutes later off a setup from Kessler. Eastern scored 20 seconds later on a goal by senior defenseman Thomas Keating to make it 10-8, but Southern was able to gain possession and draw three penalties in the final two minutes to close out the victory.

“We played great today,” Mattern said. “It’s all about making the next play and I think we did that great and got the job done.”

“We came out with the saying ‘don’t let today be the last one’ and we really played with a chip on our shoulder all game long,” Kessler said. “We played with that intensity the whole game and we did the little things right.”

Now it’s on to Kingsway for a shot at the program’s fifth sectional title. The Dragons are unbeaten and ranked No. 8 in the latest NJ.com state top 20. They have won 19 of 21 games by four goals or more. One of their two one-goal wins came against Southern in a 6-5 victory on May 19.

“We knew coming into this year it was going to be us, Kingsway and Eastern in some order,” Pampalone said. “We scrimmaged Eastern and we wanted to make sure we got Kingsway on our schedule. It just happened that it was late in the year, which was one of the reasons we opted out of the Shore Conference Tournament, to keep that game. We wanted the opportunity to play them and, if we beat them, to get the No. 1 seed and have everything come through here. We didn’t get it done that day and lost 6-5 in a really tough game, but we left with a lot of confidence knowing we can go down there and win.”

“It’s exciting,” Mattern said. “I think us losing to them was a big wake-up call. We’re ready to go down there and give it to them.”

“We’re very confident going into the final, getting a second shot at them,” Kessler said. “We’re going in with a full head of steam.”