It has been quite a season so far for the boys on JV. So far, we are 1–7, and while it may seem bad, it can be explained. Our season opened against powerhouse St.Peter’s Prep. Dehaven, our coach, went with the 5-3-2 to get optimal defense. And in the first 55 minutes of the game, it was 0-0. much better performance than last year. Will Mazzei, Brody Sheehan, Aidan Fahy, Christian Waldman, and freshman Max Dattolo held strong on defense, and Eric De Vomecourt and Sebastian Wright were strong in the net. But as the game went on and our team got tired, we got sloppy and ended up letting in 3. We had a few good chances on the offense Anthony Costa and myself. We just couldn’t get it done. After that loss, we had a bit of a break. Hillside and Scotch Plains both got canceled, so we had our eyes on Linden, a team we knew we could beat.
Finally, after a full week of practices, we had Linden on the 15th. We were confident we could win. And in the end, we did, 2-1. While it may not have been by the margin we wanted, the boys got it done. In the first half, we let in a sloppy goal within the first 5 minutes, but after Linden had a bad tackle in the box, we got a penalty. Ethan Garcia came up and tied it for us. For the rest of the first half, OP had most of the possession, but we couldn’t get one in. The second half went our way. We got a corner, and after a nice ball by Kyle Bochenek, Ethan scored an absolute screamer of a volley right into the top right corner. For the rest of the game, we held great possession, and in the last 5 minutes, the coach put five in the back to secure the big win.
Our next game was against Rahway, and this was a hard loss. Coach Dehaven had a chip on his shoulder after a tough loss to them last year, in penalties and in counties. He wanted this badly, which made all of us want to. We had the home advantage and were ready. This game was extremely tight, up and down, but no team got any clear chances. It wasn’t until the 72nd minute that this game went terribly. After a short cross into the box by Rahway Will Mazzei and a Rahway player going up for the 50/50 ball, there was some contact but nothing we haven’t seen, or so we thought. The Rahway player came crashing down and flopped; the referee called a penalty. We were fuming. Our Coach was screaming. We were all yelling; it was a madhouse. Finally, after it settled, the kid took his kick; he scored, but it was called back; it was an infraction on Rahway. We were ecstatic, until the ref called for a retake. Usually, the rule is: If the team taking the penalty causes the infraction, it’s Oratory’s ball, but clearly this ref didn’t know the rules. More screaming ensued, and this time the kid took it and scored. With 8 minutes left, we frantically tried scoring but couldn’t get the win.
After this heartbreaking loss, Dehaven and the team were locked in. Our next game was supposed to be New Prov, but it got postponed, so we had a full weekend of recovery. We had our eyes set on Dayton.
As that date arrived once again, we were ready. This was a must-win, as we were now 1-2. We started off strong at the beginning of the first half. We had great chances with Anthony Costa, Jack Ebert (me), Kyle Bochenek, and Charlie Spiegel. But still, our finishing was subpar. And after 30 minutes, we found ourselves down 2-0. This was a wake-up call for us. At halftime, the coach gave us a stern talk, and within 15 minutes, Anthony Costa scored two, and we were tied. But this sadly did not last long; by the 20th minute, we were down. Coach tried everything; we played a 4-3-3, and then a 3-5-2. But again, we couldn’t get the job done. And it was another heartbreaking loss.
This next game was bad; it was against Elizabeth, and we lost 8-2. The coach was unhappy; the only highlight was goalie Eric De Vromecourt scoring 2.
Unfortunately, we lost our two games last week to Plainfield and Dayton. I am confident that we will end our season on a high note, as the adversity we have faced has made us much stronger.