Rams Come Back to Keep Their State Tournament Hopes Alive Against Paramus Catholic

On October 31st, Oratory Soccer played first round of the state tournament. The Rams received the fifth seed for this years state tournament where they would yet again face off against 12th seeded Paramus Catholic, just as they did last year. In the year prior, the Rams absolutely dismantled PC, making it a 7-1 game resulting in the Rams moving on to play against Seton Hall. The Rams would look to do this again, however the first half would end in an odd predicament –  with OP being down 2-1. Oratory’s only first half goal came from senior defender Will Ol0han in the form of a header. The Rams would have to really bounce back in order to keep their hopes alive for the next round, which they eventually would behind Jack Maenpaa scoring an absolutely beautiful top left corner goal for the equalizer. Maenpaa would tack on two more to put the Rams lead to 4-2 with a few minutes remaining, tallying his fifteenth goal of the season. Henry Griffiths would then tack on the last goal, putting him up to ten goals on the season and propel the Rams to a 5-2 win over Paramus Catholic. These goals were made possible by Nico Stauffer and Ryan Tole who would also tack on two assists to help lead the offense alongside the scorers. In his return from injury, Kal Mitchell would come back strong making two saves and his distribution being superb as well.  The Rams will now face off against Dwight-Englewood on the road for a four vs five seed matchup to determine who plays Seton Hall in the semi-final round of the State Tournament.