Delbarton 0-1

Delbarton and Scotch Plains-Fanwood, two teams used to playing meaningful games deep into November, opened the season on a brilliant late summer day with a classic struggle that neither team deserved to lose Ultimately the game came down to a fortunate bounce which Delbarton’s Mark Murphy converted from short range in the second sudden death overtime to give the Green Wave a 1-0 victory Friday at Scotch Plains.

“It’s a long time since we lost on opening day,” said Scotch Plains Fanwood coach Tom Breznitsky. “But I would rather lose a game like this in September than in November like Ramapo last year.” Breznitsky was referring to the final game of last season when the Raiders lost on penalty kicks after coming back from a two-goal deficit.

The loss for the Raiders was the first on its home field since a 1-0 setback to Chatham in 2000. It was also their first loss in an opener since 1996, when it also fell in overtime against Chatham, 4-3.

The opening loss blunted a superb effort by sophomore goalie Bryan Meredith who was both lucky and spectacular in an effort that showed he might even is better than when he burst upon the scene with 15 shutouts a year ago and was first team all Union County. In the first half Meredith batted away a hooking direct kick from Delbarton’s All State player Will Lee and was rescued when a Delbarton head ball hit the post.

In the final minute of regulation he stopped a point blank blast by Daniel DeGeorge with a hockey goalie like kick save. “It was a big scramble in front. I was fortunate to get my feet out there and get it,” said Meredith of his last minute save.

“Bryan is going to be a big time goalkeeper for many years to come,” said Breznitsky. “He took a goal away from them in each half.”

Delbarton, especially Lee, put continuous pressure on Meredith with several high shots into a very tough sun but Meredith caught everything.
“It was very hard looking into the sun but it’s something you get used to as a goalie,” said Meredith.

After generating few scoring chances in the first half the Raiders awoke in the second half. Some long throw-ins by junior defenseman Jeff Bell and direct kicks by defensive midfielder Billy Albizati were almost converted into goals by Sean Young and Sean McNelis. AJ Appezzatto also came close to scoring on several occasions, including a blistering shot that just tailed wide in the second half.

Hurting the Raiders’ cause was an injury to starting midfielder Casey Hoynes-O’Connor who hadn’t practiced in three weeks with a sprained deltoid ligament in his left ankle and reinjured it 20 minutes into the game and never returned.

Without their main distributor and passer the Raiders moved freshman Brian Hessemer to midfield and despite playing his first varsity game, Hessemer showed much of the same abilities of his older brother, Mike, an all state player who graduated last year.

Also providing a spark was another freshman, forward Jarek Cohen, who was given the number (nine) of Breznitsky’s son, Ryan a two-time all state player who also graduated last spring.

“I’m very pleased to have two freshmen come in and play at this intensity level in their first game, “ said Breznitsky.

“Our big time players Terrence Charles and Bryan rose to the challenge today,” said Breznitsky.

But the coach was not pleased with his team’s lack of offense. “We have to do better than we played today,” said Breznitsky. “We had some good chances but we didn’t finish very well.”

Breznitsky, while disappointed was philosophical. “Overtime game, ball bounces funny, they kick it in. We’ve won a lot of games like that over the years. It’s tough to lose like that. “