Westfield-Scotch Plains Soccer 2004 (0-2)

When two stingy defensive teams like those of the Scotch Plains Fanwood High School and Westfield High School girls square off, goals are usually at a premium and are gladly accepted no matter how unusual the circumstances. In as bizarre a first half as any in recent memory, the Raiders scored in the first and last minutes of the opening stanza, and made them stand up to improve their record to 3-0-1 with a 2-0 victory Monday at Roosevelt Middle School in Westfield. In yet another odd twist, Scotch Plains’ second goal, which both winning coach Kevin Ewing and losing coach Katie Egan agreed was the back breaker, was scored by a freshman substitute Lana Bencivengo who had just entered the game for the first time and would not play at all in the second half.

Bencivengo outmaneuvered Westfield goalie Tara O’Donahue, who had ventured outside the penalty box to try and snare Allie Hambleton’s long pass and put a well placed left footed shot into the empty net for her second goal of the season. Ewing had inserted
Bencivengo to give senior tri-captain Jessie Sapienza a breather at the end of the first half.
“Lana has a lot of energy. I thought she might give us a spark,” said Ewing.

“I didn’t know how much time was left when I came in,” said Bencivengo, a superbly conditioned athlete who trained all summer with the cross-country team and has a twin brother Greg who is one of the top five runners for coach Jeff Koegel. Despite O’Donahue being closer to the ball, Bencivengo never gave up on the play.

“I never stop running. When I saw I had a chance for the ball I thought to myself, it’s there I just have to hit it.”

“That was a very big play in the game,” added Egan. “With our trouble finishing plays and scoring goals, two goals down against a good team like Scotch Plains is a lot to make up.”

Still, the Blue Devils played a strong second half and led by sophomore Erin McCarthy
put good offensive pressure on Raider goalie Lauren Mains who had to battle a strong sun. “We just can’t seem to finish anything. It’s almost like a Westfield curse ” said Egan, now 1-2-1 in her first year with the state’s number one team Ridge, looming next on the schedule.

The Raiders took advantage of a revamped Blue Devil defense to score in the game’s first minute on a Hambleton header off a Kelly Rigano corner kick. It was the second time in the last three games the Raiders had converted a corner kick in the game’s opening minutes. Unlike the last time, a disappointing 1-1 tie at Cranford, the Raiders
kept the pressure up for the entire 90 minutes.

“ It was good overall game. We played hard for the entire game. Our defense was very solid ,” said Ewing. “I think the Cranford game was a good learning experience for us. We have to keep our intensity and not let down.”

Ewing was effusive in his praise of defenders Allie Zazzali, and Lauren Perrotta, who played their usual solid games in front of Mains.
“We came into this game knowing they wanted badly to beat us to make up for last year ,” said Perrotta, a senior tri-captain. “The second goal was really big because it helped
give us some breathing room.”

Last October the teams had battled 100 minutes through two overtimes to a scoreless tie after Scotch Plains had won the earlier game 2-1. The schedule gets extremely challenging for the Raiders, who battled 10th ranked East Brunswick Wednesday and play cross-town rival Union Catholic on Monday. Also looming is matches with unbeatens Kearny and Bridgewater Raritan, number 10 in the state.

The Blue Devils were playing their first full game without standout junior defender Allison Bridgman, who tore her Anterior Cruciate Ligament and is out for the season.
“It was an incredible setback losing Allison for the season. She was a big part of our team and we’re still trying to replace her. ,” said Egan.

Westfield 2004 Soccer Preview

Despite being one of the winningest soccer coaches in the state over the past twenty five years Westfield High School Boys Soccer coach George Kapner considers himself a teacher first and is most proud of the teaching awards he has garnered as a math instructor over the past 31 years, including five mentions in the annual Who’s Who of American Teachers. With a 172-60-22 record the past thirteen years as boys’ coach, Kapner has also done a pretty good job of imparting his wisdom to his players but also sees a challenge competing against schools with more vigorous summer programs.

“It is important to note, however, that we are a program that allows our students maximum flexibility to experience the summer months as young adults and not just soccer players. In that regard, we are, in soccer terms, not as far
along in training as some of our opponents,” said Kapner who realizes the massive graduation losses from a 12-6-1 season
could make the beginning of the 2004 campaign challenging.

Last season the Blue Devils got off to an uncharacteristically slow start before catching fire in midseason, winning seven straight games. However an upset loss to New Providence in the second round of the Union County Tournament and
5-2 thumping in the second round of the state tournament by Group IV finalist Bridgewater Raritan left a bitter taste to the season. When asked what went wrong Kapner replied,
“A variety of things.. Injuries, suspensions, a lack of chemistry, excellent competition to name a few..”

Kapner must find ways to replace the all around talent of two-time all Union County sweeper Brendan Egan(brother of Westfield Girls’ Soccer Coach Katie Egan), all county midfielder Lee Tomasso and second team all county midfielder
Matt McManus.

“We lost some solid senior leadership. We’re going to be very young this year ,” said Kapner.

Two scrimmages have left numerous competitors for starting positions although the few returning starters like seniors Billy
Billy Schoenbach, Brady Lau, Tom Tresnan, junior Tom Taylor and sophomore Chris Mattess are a good nucleus.
Schoenbach scored goals in both state tournament games last year and will be looked on to provide offensive and defensive leadership

Senior Jeff Greenlaw, who backed up Brian Pirot last year is likely to be the starting goalkeeper.
Seniors. Joe Geissler and Steve Lynes are likely to join returning starters Tresnana and Mattes as starting fullbacks,
Junior Matt Melino and sophomore Vincent Clarke-10 are likely to join Taylor and Schoenbach in midfield while sophomore Tom Parkinson joins Lau as strikers.

At this early time Kapner hasn’t a clue which type of team this group will evolve into.
“ No specific season comes to mind but over the years, every possibility has
occurred, meaning, there have been years where we were optimistic and
succeeded, years where we were optimistic and didn't meet expectations,
years where we were inexperienced and succeeded and years where we were
inexperienced and struggled ,” said Kapner.
When you have coached as long as Kapner you’re ready for anything.

Westfield 2004 Football Preview

Football coaches are often known to blame their athletic directors when they think a schedule is unreasonably difficult. With the Westfield football team once again facing one of the area’s most difficult schedules, Ed Tranchina, starting his eighteenth season as Westfield High School football coach, can only blame himself, Ed Tranchina the Westfield athletic director. Starting with their home opener tomorrow against powerful Old Bridge the Blue Devils will face six 2003 playoff teams in their first seven games, a daunting task for a young team which is very inexperienced at the skill positions.

But there are few football coaches anywhere better suited for the challenge than Tranchina who enjoys his role of football teacher. “It would be more challenging but this is a very intelligent and coachable group of young men and I am confident we will be a cohesive unit before the end of the year,” said Tranchina.

The toughest challenge will be to replace Jan Cocozziello, an all Union County quarterback who was even more spectacular on defense where he intercepted a school record eight interceptions.
“Jan was the man for us last year ,” said Tranchina. “He did everything for us on both sides of the ball. He was a phenomenal football players who will be hard to replace.”

Cocozziello teamed with halfback Tyshon Blackmon to help the Blue Devils overcome a 0-3 start and qualify for the Group 3 sectional playoffs where they bowed to unbeaten Sayreville 20-13. Included in the comeback were four straight wins including an upset of unbeaten Morristown, which made the group IV section finals. The Blue Devils dropped their final three games to finish 4-6.

Taking the quarterback reins will be senior Mike Patella, a starter a year ago in the secondary. “He’s a good athlete with excellent speed who throws well on the run,” said Tranchina. As to his lack of experience Tranchina noted ,”He doesn’t have to win the game for us. he just needs to play solidly.”

Talking over the bulk of the running duties in Westfield’s full house backfield will be senior Tom DelDuca who gained almost seven yards per carry last year. Sharing the all important blocking fullback position will be Mark Dowling and Richie Stewart. Senior Sammy Kim and junior Andrew Schaeffer will share duties at the other halfback.

Tranchina will rotate John Gagliano, Ryan Sharkey and Mike Barbieri at split end. Bryan Power a ferocious hitter at linebacker will also return as a starting tight end. The offensive and defensive line will feature numerous two-way players led by returning starts Mike Finne and Mark Harbaugh. Others who will play a key role in the trenches include Darrell Haopkins, Cowles Stewart, Jake Brandeman, Diego Betancourt and Richie Stewart.

Rounding out the defense will be linebacker Paul Goldewitz, safety Nick DeRosa and cornerbacks William Jenkins, Jayshawn King and Terron Rodgers

Although Tranchina tries not to look past Old Bridge, an 8-3 team and playoff semi finalist a year ago, he knows there are few breathers on the schedule. Westfield has replaced Kearny, which dropped football, and has been an easy win the past few seasons, with top ten power Elizabeth, which figures to be loaded again this year.

According to Tranchina, a big part of the schedule difficulty comes from playing in the loaded Watchung Conference, arguably the toughest public school conference in the state with perennial powers like Union, Elizabeth. and neighborhood rival Scotch Plains among others. “We are tied into the conference schedule for most of our games ,” said Tranchina.

“A lot of teams like to play Westfield because of our football tradition ,” said Tranchina.
“I would rather playa tough schedule than an easy schedule because it helps you find out how good you are.”

Spoken like a true football coach and athletic director.