Montclair High beats crosstown rival Montclair Kimberley, 2-1

BY ANDREW GARDA
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For the second time in less than a week, Montclair High School and Montclair Kimberley Academy collided on the soccer field, this time on Saturday September 25, with the boys’ teams, after the girls played on Tuesday 21 September.

MKA won the girls’ game in a narrow 1-0 victory, but on Saturday morning it was the Mounties who took a 2-1 victory over their counterpart.

Every game counts, but it was even more critical this week as the Essex County tournament seeds were released on Wednesday after the deadline.. A win over a top-seeded team could secure a higher seed, a big loss could send a team into a lower seed.

Even a tie against a good team counts right now, and MHS continued to get hot at the right time as they tied Seton Hall Prep on Tuesday, September 28, 1-1. The Mounties got the undefeated Pirates to double overtime, which will likely be reflected in the seeds on Wednesday.

Montclair’s goal was Filippo Gaisie.

In MKA’s win, the difference for MHS (5-1-1, 3-1-1 SEC-American) was senior Kerem Bulut, whose two goals gave Montclair a two-goal lead in the middle of the second. halftime, a deficit that was just a little too deep for the Cougars to overcome.

It’s not that MKA (3-4, 1-4 SEC-American) hasn’t made him closer than the Mounties would have preferred.

The Cougars did not give up, with a goal from junior Omar Martinez eight minutes from the end of regulation time on a nice assist from Brandon Yeu.

MKA was reinvigorated by the scoring and squeezed the Mounties for most of the remaining time, Montclair’s defense fending off attack after attack. Martinez nearly tied the game with a shot slipped into the goalie’s box who went right past the other side, and another from junior Dash Weintraub who was slightly off the mark.

While Montclair head coach Touré Weaver is pleased with the win and his team’s overall progress, he believes there is still work to be done.

The Mounties had very little time to adjust to the problems afterward, as they faced Seton Hall Prep (7-0-1, 4-0-1 SEC-American) on Tuesday, considered the best team in the Super Essex Conference. Seton Hall slipped by MKA in Week 1 with a 2-1 win, but has since gutted the competition, 25-2, with five screams in the six games after MKA.

“I think we need to learn lessons from today. I think we could have been a lot better in the second half, ”said Weaver. “At the start of the year, we talked about learning as you go, and it’s a game we need to learn from. We worked hard, but I don’t think we necessarily worked smart.

Two other points according to Weaver could be improved are defense and possession of the ball.

“Defensively I thought we were a bit disorganized and then in possession we could have settled the game by owning more, not just being shaken by the moment,” he said. “So lessons to be learned, but we still have the ‘W’ so that’s a good thing.”

Like Weaver, MKA head coach Rob Leather was happy with the effort but saw things need to be fixed.

“My only criticism is that they scored two very, very good goals, and we had a lot of situations like that and didn’t quite fit that kind of execution,” said Leather. “It was a good local [match], good animated game.

Leather felt that MKA had every chance of beating their crosstown rival.

“I felt like we could beat them in midfield, and I thought we did in the second half,” he said after the loss. “He was trying to find ways to break them, and in the end we have two big chances, by Omar and Dash. He started off on the wrong foot instead of going with his right foot.

In the end, the Mounties – especially Bulut – once reaped their advantages more than the Cougars.

“Our main goal is to complete [each chance] early on, ”Bulut said of the mounted police offensive effort. “And from the start, we’ve been out one hundred percent. We are looking for that first goal and we got it. I have this second, [and] we were looking to finish with the third to completely seal the game.

Weaver said Bulut is a problem for opposing goaltenders due to the power of his shots.

“He’s super dangerous,” the coach said. “His shots on the frame, on the goal, when he shoots, he grabs [the ball] and even if he is not perfectly placed, it is so uncomfortable for the goalkeeper because of the force with which he hits him.

The Cougars weren’t at all interested in letting Montclair put the game aside, and played a stifling defense in the second half, with goaltender Andrew Avalos making some nice saves.

His Montclair counterpart, Gabriel Smullyan, also won on several occasions, as MKA continued to press the MHS defense until the last whistle.

As Montclair grappled with giant Seton Hall Prep on Tuesday, MKA struggled against Livingston, ultimately losing 4-0.

The results for MHS and MKA will absolutely have been factored into their support positions on Wednesday.

The question will be whether the Super Essex County Conference views the loss to Livingston as really bad for MKA while considering MHS’s tie against Seton Hall Prep as impressive.