Common County Bonds

It would be difficult to find two high schools more diverse than Elizabeth and Oak Knoll but the behemoth urban school with the state’s largest enrollment and the tiny private school in bucolic Summit are all that stand in the way of Scotch Plains Fanwood’s soccer teams of sweeping the Union County boys and girls titles this weekend.

Except for the names on their jerseys the Raider teams share little in common when it comes to the county tournament. The boys will be making their ninth straight appearance in the finals and have won four of the last five years. The girls, despite losing only ten games the past three years had not made it past the second round of the tournament the past two years.

But all that changed on a cold windy day at Union when Coach Kevin Ewing’s team held off a determined Arthur Johnson team 1-0 and now with the boys stand one win any way from Scotch Plains joining Westfield as the only schools to win both titles in the same years. The Raiders have some catching up to do as the Blue Devils have turned the trick an impressive seven times.

The season could have not opened more differently for the two teams. While the boys vaulted right to the top of the state rankings by impressively winning at Delbarton, the state’s number one team last fall, the girls were ambushed by an aggressive Westfield team 3-1. That loss, coupled with a brutal early season schedule left the girls reeling at 0-3-1, before they turned things around with tough victories against Union Catholic and Kearny.

In recent weeks, the team has played its best soccer of the fall, having an unbeaten streak of eight games marred only by a tie with Westfield. The Blue Devils had earlier annexed the Watchung Conference back from the Raiders after two straight Scotch Plains titles.

Twice in the county tournament the girls lost the possibility of revenging their two previous year tourney losses when Governor Livingston (2003) and Rahway (2004) were defeated. The Raiders had lost to those two teams as the second and first seed respectively but for the girls it is more important to win the tournament than seek revenge.

The losses the past two years gave the impression that the Raiders were snake bit. In 2003 they had to face lower seeded Governor Livingston on its home field and lost a 1-0 heartbreaker. Last year as a top seed, facing upstart Rahway they dominated the game but held only a 1-0 lead when Rahway tied the game on a stunning direct kick. The Raiders never recovered and lost in overtime. Now after those two disappointments 2005 finds a mature team that may finally know what it takes to win the tournament.

It has not been all smooth sailing for the boy’s team either. A rash of injuries and inconsistent offense has forced veteran coach Tom Breznitsky to take his two times all county goalie Bryan Meredith and move him to offense, relying on previously inexperienced senior Marc Stiffler to man the important goal keeping duties.

The boys have also had their difficulties with rival Westfield, having split a pair of 2-1 overtime decisions. Last Wednesday, Westfield beat the Raiders for the first time in eleven years. But it’s the Raiders and not Westfield that are in the county finals, facing an explosive Elizabeth team that ruined a possible all Scotch Plains final by handing Union Catholic its first loss of the season.

Two very different teams, one with a youthful coach, one with one of the state’s legends.
One team that expects to be in the finals the other glad it finally found the secret to clearing the hurdle. Tomorrow they convene in the same place to play each end of a doubleheader that could bring all the county tournament trophies to the same display case.