Eamon McLoughlin didn’t try to hide his disappointment.
Neither did Kearny’s players, who slumped their way to the corner to stretch after a 100-minute duel between two of New Jersey’s best soccer teams on Saturday afternoon.
Delran and Kearny don’t have much in common. They’re separated by 77 miles, are successful in different playing styles and play on different surfaces.
But both have a long-standing reputation to uphold and did so in a 1-1 draw.
“For a lot of games, it’s that Delran has to upset Kearny or Scotch Plains or someone else,” McLoughlin, who made 10 saves in goal for Delran, said. “This year, it’s a different aspect. We are a powerhouse and we want to come out and put these games away. We’ll take the draw and move on. We have a big week coming up, so it is what it is.”
All of the offense supplied came five minutes apart late in the first half. Kearny, coming off a tough loss to unbeaten Roxbury last week, took a 1-0 lead in the 32nd minute when Dalton Davila fed Christian Escandon and he calmly finished inside the left post.
But Delran, ranked No. 8 in the NJ.com Top 20, answered as leading scorer Drew Roskos got on the end of a corner service from Nik Grello in the 37th minute to equalize.
Both teams had a handful of chances in the 63 minutes that followed, but neither could find a way to break through.
“We were hoping to pull it out and the last time we were here, we pulled it out in the last minute on a penalty kick,” Kearny coach Bill Galka said. “A really good game and a good game to push us physically and soccer-wise. They’re a good team. That’s why we come here. It’s a little bit of a different atmosphere that we never play on, this might be the only game this year that we play on grass. It was a good, quality team that’s very physical and good also.”
In an epic battle of clashing styles, Kearny was better, and able to dictate play, when it got the ball to the ground and played through Davila, Rojas, Alan Antonelli and a handful of other players. For Delran, countering those chances and getting the ball up in the air and over the top to Roskos was the formula for success.
Both were there at different times, but both sides were quality in defending.
“Our defense has been extremely organized,” Delran first-year coach Tommy Orr said. “They play tough, they play together. We pride ourselves on strong defense. Kearny did an awesome job, they were awesome getting up with numbers, they create one-on-ones, give-and-go’s, they create out wide. They made it hard for us and our defense did a great job today.”
No. 13-ranked Kearny was slightly better in the run of play in overtime, but Delran had the best chance when Matt Wissman clanked a shot off the far post in the 93rd minute.
“We thought we were unlucky not to break them down but they’re tough to beat,” Galka said. “If you beat one of their defenders to beat them clean and if you did, you had to do something with it.”
The result simply underscored that these are two of N.J.’s best programs again this season, and two teams capable of making a deep state tournament run in November, Delran in Group 2 and Kearny in Group 4.
“We obviously pride ourselves on winning, that’s what a lot of our stuff is based around,” Orr said. “I told these guys that playing these teams, this is the reason why we do it. It’s always going to be a battle. We have to find ways to get better and it’s just going to help us tremendously in the long run.”
Things won’t get much easier for Delran, with games against unbeaten Cinnaminson and Scotch Plains-Fanwood this week.
“It’s every year, a lot of the media comes out and says that Delran is going to drop off, Delran is going to do this or do that,” McLoughlin said. “The work that we put in and the kids that are here want to win every single game. We say this every year: we reload. It’ll be the same next year and the same the year after that. We want to dominate New Jersey, we want to dominate South Jersey, we want to dominate everyone, everywhere. We’re going to keep doing that.”
Joshua Rodriguez made nine saves in goal for Kearny.
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Brian Deakyne may be reached at bdeakyne@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrianDeakyne.
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The Link LonkOctober 03, 2021 at 02:08AM
https://www.nj.com/highschoolsports/2021/10/no-8-delran-no-13-kearny-battle-to-hard-earned-draw.html
No. 8 Delran, No. 13 Kearny battle to hard-earned draw - nj.com
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