GREATER MIDDLESEX CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT FINAL
Thursday, Oct. 24 at Sayreville
3-South Brunswick (13-6) vs. 4-East Brunswick (13-4-1), 6:30
HOW THEY GOT HERE
South Brunswick: The long and winding road to a fifth straight appearance in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament championship game has had plenty of peaks and valleys. But the Vikings have risen to the occasion when needed, including in this tournament.
South Brunswick fought to a 5-1 win over Wardlaw-Hartridge in the first round and battled to a 2-1 triumph over Colonia in the quarterfinals before cruising past No. 10-seed Middlesex for a 4-0 win in the semifinals to advance to the GMCT final once again.
South Brunswick opened the season on a sour note, falling to South Plainfield 4-1 but hasn’t had many bad losses otherwise. The Vikings split the season series with East Brunswick, had a non-conference loss to Delran and a non-conference win over Trenton on its resume.
Jake Stump, now a senior and the program’s all-time leader in goals scored, has 26 goals on the year to headline this South Brunswick attack. Antonio Iovine (12 goals, 15 assists) has been another key piece for the Vikings.
Cory Peterson has anchored play in the back for South Brunswick and keeper Joseph Mastromonica has been strong.
East Brunswick: Defending champion East Brunswick is back in the title game as a No. 4-seed after a red-hot second half of the season saw the Bears contend as one of the best teams in Middlesex County.
East Brunswick earned its place in the GMCT title game with a 2-0 win over No. 8-seed New Brunswick Tuesday afternoon. Before that, East Brunswick collected a 1-0 win over No. 20-seed Sayreville in the first round and produced an impressive 5-2 win over No. 5-seed Piscataway in the quarterfinals over the weekend.
Similar to South Brunswick, East Brunswick didn’t have much returning this season from last year’s GMCT and Central Jersey, Group 4 championship teams. That inexperience showed early as East Brunswick stumbled out of the gate to an 0-2-1 start, but surged over the last five weeks of the season.
East Brunswick collected six straight clean sheets from Sept. 23 to Oct. 7, including an impressive 2-0 win over Monroe in that run. Built on the foundation of its stellar back line, East Brunswick has shown flashes off brilliance on offense, headlined by Andre Shelton, Anthony Rappa and Antonio Baratta.
Ryan McSwieney, one of the few players on the roster this season that experienced that dramatic postseason run last November, has been the key in net with 10 clean sheets to his credit.
CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY
South Brunswick: This will be the fifth straight season that South Brunswick is in the GMC Tournament final, but the Vikings are still searching for their first outright title during that stretch.
South Brunswick (0-3-1) in that run, earned a co-championship with South Plainfield in 2015 but since has lost to North Brunswick (2016), Monroe (2017) and East Brunswick (2018). South Brunswick’s last outright title came in 2009.
East Brunswick: East Brunswick ended a five-year title drought last season with a 1-0 win over South Brunswick and has more titles (16) than any other program in the history of the tournament.
Scott Faytok | For NJ Advance Media
East Brunswick celebrates after scoring the only goal of the game late in the second half during the boys soccer game between Old Bridge and East Brunswick at Geick Park Old Bridge, NJ on 9-19-19. East Brunswick won 1-0.
KEYS TO VICTORY
South Brunswick: South Brunswick last saw East Brunswick on the wrong end of a 5-0 result at the end of September, but plenty has changed since then. South Brunswick’s then-inexperienced newcomers have seen valuable minutes and risen into vital roles for the Vikings’ during their run through the GMC Tournament.
Offense is going to be a key for South Brunswick to win this game. Facing perhaps the best defensive team in the GMC, South Brunswick is going to need to get Stump and Iovine involved early and often to keep the pressure on that East Brunswick back line.
Getting the ball over the top isn’t going to be easy with quick-footed Seth Oppong-Dwamena ready to thwart any dangerous pass, so South Brunswick will need to be creative with how it isolates Stump into space to attack the goal.
South Brunswick doesn’t need to score early to have a chance in this game, but it does need to put legitimate chances together and not allow East Brunswick to dictate the tempo.
East Brunswick: East Brunswick has built this team on its defense, so the Bears will rely on that defense to carry them to a second straight GMCT title. Like every team that South Brunswick faces, East Brunswick will zero in on Stump and do whatever it can to keep him from getting the ball into space and 1-on-1 situations.
It will be vital for East Brunswick to get the ball out of the defending third quickly whenever the pressure mounts because South Brunswick has a knack for forcing turnovers and jumping on second balls to create chances. East Brunswick can build out of the midfield and get its quick-striking attack going through those avenues, so best to get the ball out of danger as efficiently as possible.
East Brunswick and South Brunswick are both vastly improved from their last meeting on Sept. 26, so expect this to be a much closer game than that 5-0 drubbing in East Brunswick’s favor.
PREDICTION: East Brunswick 2, South Brunswick 1
Brian Deakyne may be reached at bdeakyne@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrianDeakyne. Like NJ.com High School Sports on Facebook.
Read Again https://www.nj.com/highschoolsports/2019/10/boys-soccer-gmc-tournament-final-preview-south-brunswick-vs-east-brunswick.htmlBagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Boys Soccer: GMC Tournament final preview — South Brunswick vs. East Brunswick - NJ.com"
Post a Comment