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Southern Swag: Schweigart’s Shutout Sends Southern Boys Soccer to First Group Final

Matt Manley|November 20, 2024|Last Updated November 24, 2024

STAFFORD TWP. — During its four wins that captured the program’s first NJSIAA South Jersey Group IV championship, the Southern Regional boys soccer team did not post a clean sheet. When a team scores 18 goals in four games, holding the opponent scoreless might seem like overkill.

Hosting defending Group IV champion Princeton Tuesday in the group semifinal, Southern faced an opponent capable of cutting off the Rams’ flow of scoring. In response, Southern goalkeeper Ryan Schweigart picked an opportune time to finally finish off that postseason shutout.

With a major assist by his defense and senior captain Brody Reynolds, Schweigart stood his ground between the pipes in helping Southern close out a 1-0 win over the Little Tigers, which sends the Rams to the Group IV championship game for the first time in program history.

Southern’s postseason run and eight-game winning streak will carry all the way to Sunday, when the Rams will face Scotch Plains-Fanwood in the Group IV championship game at Franklin High School, which is set to kick off at 12:30 p.m.

Senior Aidan Donnelly supplied the only scoring needed to decide Tuesday’s showdown in Stafford when he buried a direct kick from just barely outside the top of the 18-yard box in the fifth minute.

From there, Schweigart and the defense took over. Although it required some scrambling on the part of the senior keeper, his group of defenders and even Southern’s midfield, the Rams completed the shutout against the highest-scoring opponent they have seen in the state tournament.

“Princeton really put on some pressure,” Southern coach Guy Lockwood said. “Credit to them — they are a phenomenal team, but we have an outstanding group in front of our keeper, and our keeper bailed us out there really big with a couple minutes to go.

“I said to myself, we’re not getting through this game without scoring another goal and yet, Shaggy (Schweigart) made it stand. He was just tremendous.”

Within the first five minutes of the match, Southern looked poised to author yet another high-scoring assault on an opponent in the state tournament. A hand ball just inches outside the top of the 18-yard box set up Donnelly for a direct kick in the fifth minute and the senior striker crushed a curling shot inside the right post, with Princeton goalkeeper Nick Holmelund watching helplessly as the shot bent into the goal. The goal was the team-best 28th of the season for Donnelly, who recorded a hat trick in Friday’s sectional final vs. Toms River North.

“We did say coming into this game that it was going to be a tight game all the way,” Schweigart said. “Then, when we scored that first goal with Aidan on the free kick, I thought it would be different. I honestly thought we could get a couple more in, but I also knew that (Princeton) knows what they are doing.”

“After watching the film, I didn’t think we were only going to score one goal, quite honestly,” Lockwood said. “We looked at the way they defended in the box, and I thought that’s where we were going to be able to take advantage of them. In the second half, we weren’t taking advantage of that enough because we just weren’t playing balls into the box and crowding up the space. We felt that was their weakness, we didn’t attack it enough and that’s where they were able to build some momentum.”

Princeton absorbed Southern’s early attack with just the one concession and began to assert itself on the attack over the final 15 minutes of the first half. The visitors tested Schweigart and his defense with a trio of scoring chances in which Southern dodged an equalizer, the first of which was halted due to an offsides call on Princeton senior Archie Smith. Even as the play was flagged, Schweigart stopped Smith’s would-be breakaway.

The next chance for Smith was not halted by a referee’s call, but rather created by one. Schweigart was called for picking up the ball on a pass back from a defender, which gave Princeton an indirect kick from the left side of the 18-yard box within 10 yards of the goal. The Little Tigers opted for a quick restart, and Smith again found himself one-on-one with Schweigart. Southern’s goalkeeper again came through with a kick save to deny Princeton’s second-leading scorer.

“I didn’t think it was a pass-back,” Schweigart said. “I thought it was just a clearance but I just said my fair share, then went back to the goal. I saw them play it quick, and I knew I had to be there. We knew they were going to be tactical on free kicks. We never saw an indirect free kick like that, but we were ready.”

Prior to the illegal pass-back call, senior outside back Jonathan Mandell came to Schweigart’s aid when he made a sliding clearance of a ball that was settling in the area of two open Princeton players in the middle of the 18-yard box.

Princeton’s bid for an equalizer continued early in the second half, this time with Smith spotting leading scorer Azariah Breitman and hitting his fellow senior with a precision through-ball in the first four minutes of the half. Breitman received the ball in the clear, but popped his shot over the crossbar. It was one of several instances — including the hand ball that led to Donnelly’s goal — in which Southern’s unpredictable natural grass field appeared to impact Princeton’s ability to execute.

“Just when you think you have it all figured out, the game smacks you in the face and brings you back to reality,” Lockwood said. “You hope your boys can respond to the adversity we just went through, and they did really, really well.”

After dodging that early second-half equalizer, Southern neutralized Princeton’s attack for the next 25 minutes. In the 71st, Schweigart made his lone mistake of the match and gifted the defending Group IV champions a shot at the goal with a back-up goalkeeper defending it. Schweigart attacked a cross into the box and plucked it out of the air to momentarily foil another Princeton push. He then scurried away from the goal to avoid a host of bodies from both teams, and as he ran away from the crowd, Schweigart carried the ball in his hands beyond the edge of the 18-yard box.

To compound the mistake, after the referee called him for the hand ball, Schweigart kicked the ball away and was issued a yellow card for delaying the game. That sent Southern’s starting goalkeeper to the sideline and forced senior Cristian Alvarado — also a field player off the bench — to defend a direct kick from 18 yards out at a slight angle from the left side of the field.

“I thought I let the ball go before I left the box, but I guess not,” Schweigart said. “It’s always nerve-racking when you can’t do anything and you’re on the bench. But honestly, Cristian’s a good keeper. We used to play when we were little. I played on the same team with him and he would sell out.”

Princeton sent junior starting center back Chase Hamerschlag — who pushed up to forward for the final 15 minutes — to take the kick. He ripped a shot wide of the far-right post as Princeton let another opportunity pass by.

The miss by Hamerschlag not only kept the Southern lead at 1-0, it underscored how deadly Donnelly has been for Southern on direct kicks. His goal in the fifth minute marked the third straight game in which Donnelly has buried a free kick from beyond the 18-yard box.

“He’s gone three-for-three,” Reynolds said. “He’s on fire right now and not to jinx him, but we may need him to do it one more time. We all trust him to do it, and he is good enough to just put his laces through the ball and it’s going in.”

“Nobody has been able to stop him,” Lockwood said of his top scorer. “He is just unbelievable. When I had to step in (as head coach), we talked to a few of the guys about how the biggest players, you see them in the biggest games. If you look at all these games we have played down the stretch, he has been a huge part of our success. It was no surprise he put that ball in today.”

With under four minutes left in regulation, Princeton created its best chance to score of the game, which is when Reynolds sprung into action to support his goalkeeper and longtime friend. Princeton launched a long throw-in into the box and Smith ripped a shot the middle of the 18-yard box that Schweigart saved with a diving stab. The ball bounced right to Breitman on the left side of the six-yard box and the senior forward tried for his 22nd goal with a shot that slipped over the shoulder of Schweigart. Reynolds, however, covered the end-line and cleared the shot away with a diving header. Breitman’s follow-up shot hit the outside netting to end the last Princeton threat.

“For the last 15 minutes, I was thinking if it comes down to it, I’m going to have to put my body on the line,” Reynolds said. “I tried to do the same thing in a game we lost to Manalapan, but they ended up scoring it. Shaggy made that great save in front of the goal and then I’m seeing (Breitman) run right onto that ball and I’m thinking, ‘Now is my chance. Now is my chance to put my body on the line and head it out of there.'”

“I’m seeing a bunch of white (jerseys) coming in,” Schweigart said. “I make the first save, but the second shot was past me. Brody knows what he is doing, he is coming past me, just behind me, and he makes a big save. I thought it was a goal, but he was there. I got lucky.”

The play by Reynolds exemplified the lengths to which Southern — particularly its seniors — will go to finish off a championship run after encountering disappointment throughout the first part of the season, despite a respectable 13-5-1 record heading into the tournament. Reynolds was responsible for setting up four goals in Southern’s 6-3 win over Toms River North on Friday, but it was the goal he prevented that has the Rams moving on to the championship game.

“I’ll always back him up,” Reynolds said of Schweigart. “He is one of my best friends since birth. We’re almost blood. We’re that close. If any other person on that field is back there, they do the same thing. It’s just instinct. Put your body on the line.”

“He senses the moments where he’s needed in the back more than when to go forward,” Lockwood said of Reynolds. “He did that against Central — he started to drop himself in the formation. With about 20 minutes to go today, I asked him to just sit a little bit. He has very good instincts, he knows where he is needed, and he does a great job for us in so many areas.”

Princeton could not create another shot over the final three minutes and Southern celebrated its first trip to the Group IV championship game.

“This win gives us a lot of confidence,” Reynolds said. “We’re going to celebrate tonight and tomorrow, we’re going to head back out to the field and grind it out for three more days so we can be ready to win a championship.”

“We won the last game (vs. Toms River North) and made history, but we said we want to make more history,” Schweigart said. “There is more history for us to make.”

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