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St. Benedict's star Amadou Hann (in top photo) was held in check by the West Orange defense yet Gray Bees still found way to score goal in the game's final minute to defeat Mountaineers, 1-0, in Saturday's Essex County Tournament final at Livingston's Jacobson Field. It was a second straight ECT title for the Newark-based school. (SC photo and by PJ Candido/SHP and Jeff Stiefbold)
LIVINGSTON- Nathaniel Addo had no problem in that much of the attention of the West Orange defense was focused on his much-heralded St. Benedict’s teammate, junior Amadou Hann, who entered Saturday’s Essex County Tournament final with a team-leading 18 goals. “It’s always about him with other teams, we know that, and it’s OK,” said the Gray Bees’ sophomore forward. “The idea is to just find ways to score and to win with other people getting the job done. “With it getting so late I knew I had to get a goal, and there was no doubt in my mind I would score. “This tournament means a lot to us and we had to win!” Addo’s goal, as he split two defenders and fired a blistering shot into the top left corner of the net with just 52 seconds remaining, lifted the top-seeded and unbeaten Gray Bees (15-0-1) to a thrilling 1-0 win over second-seeded West Orange in the championship game of the 51st ECT. St. Benedict’s, which is ranked No. 1 in the country and is 89-1-1 in its last 91 matches, captured its second straight ECT title after reentering the event last fall for the first time since 2005 when they joined the Super Essex Conference. The Gray Bees have now won 8 ECT titles and are now 8-1 in finals. Columbia leads all teams with 13 championships while Seton Hall Prep and Montclair each have nine. The victory was never easy, and came against as strong a public-school side as there is out there this fall in second-seeded West Orange (18-2), which is No. 3 in the state according to nj.com and is ranked 14th nationally. “I thought we carried the majority of the game throughout the 80 minutes, but hats off to West Orange,” said St. Benedict’s coach Jim Wandling. “Their boys are committed, they work relentlessly, their coaches had them set up in a very organized way and they are a tough team to break down so it may have taken us 79 minutes, but we stayed the course and we found the one that separated us in the end! “Amadou is our go-to-guy and everybody knows that. We talk all the time about needing other guys to step up on the day when Amadou is not going to be the difference and – fortunately for us – while we’ve relied heavily on hm this year, when we’ve needed that someone else to step up we’ve found that guy. “Nathaniel is just shifty, he pops up all over the field, he’s dynamic and quick, he changes direction quickly and he’s very hard to keep a hold on over the course of 80 minutes. “Our guys are committed to play the game until the final whistle and today we needed to do that.” For West Orange, which had also been edged by St. Benedict’s by one goal, 2-1, on Oct. 8 in their SEC-American Division showdown, it was a classic demonstration of superb lockdown defense, except for the late goal by Addo. Coach Doug Nevins and his staff ran out four midfielders and one forward and shined throughout the field in limiting touches or much opportunity for Hann to take over the match after he had scored both his team’s goals in his team’s regular-season win at West Orange. Leading the defensive strength for the Mountaineers was their UCLA-bound senior strongman Marcus Jackson, who stymied several potential pportunities for St. Benedict’s. Senior Carl Hall, his team’s leading scorer, and junior Justin Amaya excelled in the midfield while junior backs Jostin Pereira and Niko Chiovaro were also among the key defenders in front of the superb junior goalkeeper Agustin Arrieta (5 saves). “We needed Marcus to save us so many times and he’s the real deal, no doubt about that, said Nevins. “They (St. Benedict’s) is such a high-quality team that if you don’t do the right thing every time they’re eventually going to catch you. “I came away from our first game with them thinking ‘Holy Crap,’ are we that close to them; maybe it’s just the score line, and coming in here I’m thinking can we do it again in a county final on a bigger field and it’s like, ‘Maybe we can do this!’ “Their reaction afterwards and the respect they showed for our team just shows that we’re a really good team and that feels good. “We’re not going to play anyone in Group 4 like them. They are at a different level than anyone I’ve seen in my 26 years (coaching). I think what people don’t understand is that they are so good at every position and seven or eight of their guys are just so elite that it’s hard to isolate them and find a weakness and then get after them. “Everything that you ask for as a coach, if they go and execute, you can’t be upset. “We just hope that we can play at that level against other public schools the rest of the way. We have a tough section (North 1, Group 4) with Kearny, Clifton and Montclair and the other section (North 2) has Scotch Plains, Elizabeth and Westfield. “We’ve done very well against all the public-school teams we’ve seen so far, but we’ll see what happens now.” West Orange is the top seed in N1G4 and hosts 16th-seeded Bergen Tech in first round action on Tuesday (Nov. 4). St. Benedict’s is the No. 1 seed in Non-Public, North A and will entertain the survivor of Monday’s (Nov. 3) first-round contest between 9-Newark Academy and 8-DePaul on Thursday, Nov. 6 in the state sectional quarterfinals. 51 Essex County Boys Soccer Tournament Finals: Most Titles: Consecutive Titles: Most Final Appearances: Most Consecutive Finals: ECT historical information provided by Jeff Goldberg Follow Steve Tober on 'X' @Chattermeister
West Orange veteran coach Doug Nevins knows that he has a formidable soccer side for Group 4 teams to contend with in NJSIAA tournament led by UCLA-bound senior leader Marcus Jackson. The Mountaineers were edged by St. Benedict's 1-0 in ECT the final but could proudly display the ECT runnerup trophy during postgame. (SC photos and by Jeff Stiefbold)
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