By John Mooney of The SPF Alternative Press
CLARK, NJ – The Scotch Plains-Fanwood boys soccer team won its second consecutive Union County title with a 2-0 victory over Westfield at Arthur L. Johnson High School in Clark, NJ, on Saturday evening.
The Raiders broke the ice with about 15 minutes left in the first half when senior Ryan Watt found the back of the net off a free kick by Darren Edelman. It’s not the first time a member of the Watt family stunned Westfield in a big game. His older brother, Patrick, scored the lone goal in the rivals’ game at Red Bull Stadium in 2022.
“My two older brothers played in these games, and I wanted this to be my time. Darren got the ball to me, and I was able to put it in,” Watt told TAPinto. “I remembered watching their games from the stands and waiting for it to be my turn.
As the clock ticked down to 13 seconds before the half, Jayvon Young, who scored two goals in last week’s semifinal against Elizabeth on the very same field, put the ball past Blue Devils goalie Simon Gunzberg to give the Raiders a 2-0 lead at half-time.
From the start of the second half, the Raiders were in shutdown mode, thwarting any Westfield scoring chances and dominating possession. Colin Kochanowicz ran down just about every ball that came his way. Darren Edelman seemed to win every header, and Bradley Pierce helped smother Westfield’s offensive attack. As the game wore down, Coach Alex Passucci told his team to slow it down and keep it simple.
“I felt in the first half, we were trying to do too much with the ball, and we needed to do a better job with possession in the second half of the game,” Passucci told TAPinto. “We needed to keep the ball in their half of the field. Our defense was incredible. The back four were tremendous tonight. Our goal was a clean sheet tonight.”
While this year’s team has been a typically strong Raiders squad, it was far from a foregone conclusion that they would repeat last year’s success.
“I give these boys a lot of credit. We lost seven starters from last year’s team. They came in, worked hard, and stayed positive. They believed in themselves,” he said. “We believed that we could win a championship this year, and we did it.”
With the win, the Raiders improved to 15-2-2, and will begin their quest for a state title against Union on Tuesday, Nov. 4, at home against Union at 5 p.m. in the first round of the NJSIAA North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 tournament. Scotch Plains-Fanwood is the No. 1 seed in the tournament, while Union is No. 16.