Boy’s Soccer Falls to Burlington Township 3-1

Boy’s soccer was riding a three-game win streak heading into their game with Burlington Township on Tuesday afternoon, but the Falcons walked away with a 3-1 victory. The Pirates are now 3-2 on the young season, while the Falcons improve to 5-0.

The majority of the first half was scoreless until Burlington Township broke through in the 32nd minute to go up 1-0 on a goal from Brandon Ortiz.

“Our outside back, who has a lot of experience back there, just lacked concentration,” head coach Jay Meile said. “He let the kid get space. When we went over the scouting report yesterday and watched video on him, we talked about not giving that kid space. We just gave him too much space. He had a full head of steam, beat him in-line and pushed the ball into the six.”

The score remained 1-0 until the 36th minute, when the Falcons added a second goal on a penalty kick from Justin Delapenha after a call against Sampson Abah.

“It was a reckless challenge,” Meile said. “I think it was the right call by the official. I think Sampson just got caught flat-footed. His first instinct was to kind of slow the kid down and play defense. By that point, when he tried to disrupt his run, it was too late.”

Just 47 seconds after the Falcons went up 2-0, they added their third and final goal of the game as Ortiz hit pay dirt for the second time.

Burlington Township took the 3-0 lead into halftime.

Cinnaminson responded early in the second half when Mason Stepnowski found the net in the third minute of play. That was as close as the Pirates would get the game, despite dominating play in the second half. Coach Miele said that he was happy with how the team responded in the second half down 3-0.

“It makes me confident in our next game. We have a big four game stretch with a division co-leader today, Delran Thursday, Holy Cross Saturday and another division co-leader in R.V. on Tuesday. It’s nice that the kids responded the way we asked them to. It shows them that they can beat that team and that that team didn’t just outclass us and outperform us. They caught us when our heels were back and they took advantage of it.”

Goalie Mike Deal made eight saves in the loss.

The Pirates return to action on Thursday, September 24 when they host Delran at 3:45pm.

“We have to have the same mindset as them, play all 80 minutes,” Meile said. “When you sub on, or whether you come on, you have to stay involved in the game. You can’t break down because the ball is on the other side of the field or you’re on the bench catching a drink. You should be involved mentally in this game all 80 minutes. Once you lose that concentration, good teams beat you, and Delran’s definitely a good team.”

Cinn City Sports will have coverage of the action. Follow us on Twitter for live updates throughout the game.