Coming off a tough loss to Burlington Township on Tuesday, the Pirates knew they had to come out strong against Delran on Thursday afternoon. The Pirates did just that, jumping out to a 2-0 lead en route to a 3-2 victory, their fourth of the season (4-2).
“It’s like anything; scoring the two goals give you confidence that you can compete with the team,” head coach Jay Meile said. “You’re at their level, if not better. It’s that third goal, the momentum swing you’ve got to be careful about. When they got the first goal, you knew we were going to be on our heels a little bit. It was great to see how they responded in the second half.”
The first goal of the game came in the 9th minute of play off the foot of Mason Stepnowski who was setup by a beautiful pass from Jake Vermes.
“We knew what we were expecting,” Stepnowski said. “They were going to be a good physical team. We had a tough loss two days ago. We had to bounce back. I put it in and I think it really energized us. It’s always nice getting a win over Delran.”
A little more than two minutes later, in the 11th minute, Pat McCarthy scorched a ball past the Bears goalie to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead. McCarthy’s goal came off a direct kick.
The score would remain the same until the 22nd minute, when Delran got one back. The Bears scored again to tie the game at two in the 26th minute. Delran’s goals were scored by Gabe DaSilva and Jeremy Rafanello.
The two goals late in the first half would be the only two scores of the game for the Bears, who were dominated in the second half by the Pirates.
Cinnaminson played almost the entire first 20 minutes of the season half in Delran’s zone, and it paid off in the 60th minute, when Mike Reid broke free and deposited the eventual game winner.
“It was great. I’ve worked all season for this moment,” Reid said after scoring the game winner. “I’m happy it paid off. We bounce back real good. We work hard in practice all week and just to play big games like this and come out with the victory is nice.”
The Pirates defense clamped down the rest of the way, limiting the Bears chances to tie the game. Goalie Mike Deal made four saves in the fourth victory of the season for the Pirates, with two of them coming down the stretch.
With the three different goal scorers and the effort of the defense, the Pirates got contributions from everyone on the field Thursday.
“It’s a home game. You always want to protect your home field. With the number of seniors (11), it means a lot to them when they play Delran and they don’t want to lose to them.”
The tough stretch of games for the Pirates continues on Saturday, September 26 when they travel to take on Holy Cross at 11am. Meile again reiterated that his team has to play a full 80 minutes on Saturday.
“We have to play all 80 minutes. Last year, when we played Delran it was a very emotional game. It was at their place and we won 2-1. The next game, we had R.V. and they spanked us, 3-0. We have to stay focused on Holy Cross. They are not in our division, but they are in our league. They are the school right down the street. We gotta play like this game means a lot.”
Follow Cinn City Sports on Twitter for updates on all the varsity teams throughout the season.
[…] two teams split the regular season series with the Pirates winning the first match 3-2 and the Bears taking the second match 1-0. In four playoff meetings between the two teams, the […]