Soccer Raiders Step Up Pace; Trample No. 5 Kardinals, 3-1

1 A WATCHUNG COMMUNICATIONS, INC. PUBLICATIONThe Westfield Leader and THE TIMES of Scotch Plains FanwoodThursday, October 17, 2002 Page 11 CYAN YELLOW MAGENTA BLACKTHE WEEK IN SPORTSSee it all in color at! Section Pages 11-16 BREZNITSKY, KAY, MCNELIS CONNECT FOR GOALSS occer Raiders Step Up Pace; Trample No. 5 Kardinals, 3-1By DAVID B. CORBINS pecially Written for The Westfield Leader and The TimesStepping up the pace, the ScotchPlains-Fanwood High School boyssoccer team proved its No. 1 statusby trampling No. 5 Kearny in ScotchPlains on October 9. The high pacebegan just before junior RyanBreznitsky connected on a directkick midway into the first half to tiethe game. Junior Josh Kay netted afirst-half goal and sophomore SeanMcNelis added the cushion in thesecond half.

2 We took it to them! We reallypicked up the pace, said RaiderHead Coach Tom Ray DiNizo who headedthe hustle and made great feeds tothe forwards, commented, The teamon the whole wanted to get the ball toRyan and myself because we wantedto distribute the balls out wide tothem, have them check it back in tous and switch the field. We wanted tomix the pace up so it wasn t the sameup and down the field. The Kardinals caught the Raidersa bit off-guard and took a 1-0 lead,11:16 into the first half when MikeMillar, converging from the right,crossed left to Hugh MacDonald whoslanted a shot into the right corner ofthe net. Other than that, although theKardinals did orchestrate some fero-cious attacks, Raider defenderDwight Simms covering the middlealong with Mike Hessemer, RichardoArocha and Mike Miller allowed justone shot on goal that was easilysaved by senior keeper Rick , who was particularly tena-cious, made some timely deflectionsinside the , the Raiders awakened,stepped up the pace and put theKardinals on the defensive.

3 The ef-fect of the rapid pace was Ed Zazzali, with one of hispatented headspring throw ins, foundsenior Taylor Cole who just missedby ripping a shot into the outside ofthe net. Moments later, from ap-proximately 25 yards out,Breznitsky, who also had an assist,hooked his direct kick into the lowerleft , who scored only oncebefore on a direct kick againstWestfield on September 18, said, Once again, I don t think it wasmuch of a good shot but it went GETS 86-YD TD ON KICKOFF; WELSH, 2 TDS Devil s Brigade DemolishesLinden Football Men, 21-0By DAVID B. CORBINS pecially Written for The Westfield Leader and The TimesNoise, especially the crackingsound of great, hard-nosed tacklingsent a clear message to visiting Lin-den that the Westfield High School Devil s Brigade defense was readyto play.

4 Combining that noise withgreat individual offensive and spe-cial team efforts, the 4-1 Blue Devilsdemolished the Tigers, 21-0, at GaryKehler Stadium on October Tri-Captain/linebacker PatDaly provided several cracking tack-les that stuck the Tiger halfbacksinto the wet turf. That, along withgang tackling, a fumble-causing sackby end Bob Wilt that resulted in arecovery by tackle Giuseppe Insigma,a seven-yard sack by end MontelGlasco, an interception by JoshZucker and a fumble recovery bylinebacker Brian Butts, held the Ti-gers to just 10-yards rushing in thefirst half and eight in the second Tigers were also limited to onepass completion for 26 yards in thefirst half and two completions for 22yards in the second half.

5 The big hits were back today, said Blue Devil Head Coach EdTranchina. The footing wasn t was an advantage to the guy (Daly), especially, I re-member some great sticks. Theystepped up. Adam (Trzesniowski) isour other linebacker and Butts, theydid a great job. Our defensive linemust have played great. They are agood offensive team and we nullifiedthat. Daly added, We came off a bigwin from last week. We knew ourdefense had come together. We hadteam tackling. Spectacular individual efforts byButts and junior running back BartWelsh resulted in two second-halftouchdowns. On the opening kickoffof the second half, Butts grabbed theball on the Westfield 14, broke up themiddle, knocked over some want-to-be tacklers and slanted down theright sideline to pay dirt with only 18seconds off the clock.

6 Before the game, the coaches kepttelling us, up the middle, they areleaving it open. We set up the wedgein the middle. I saw one kid comingat me. I just lowered my shoulder andhe was down. Then I saw open fieldand turned it on, explained Butts. This game I will remember therewere some great individual efforts, expressed Tranchina. The way thisguy (Butts) returned the kickoff, whenyou see kickoff returns, you see guysget a space and go. He broke tacklesand ran over some guys. That set thetone. That blew it open right there. On second-and-13 from theCONTINUED ON PAGE 14 NIKKI LEBLANC, HALL, THE ROCK SET THE PACEBlue Devil V ballers ConquerLady Minutemen, 15-7, 15-11By FRED LECOMTES pecially Written for The Westfield Leader and The TimesThe Westfield High School girlsvolleyball team (9-1) awaited a show-down with the 9-1 Elizabeth LadyMinutemen and sent a strong mes-sage by reaping a, 15-7, 15-11, vic-tory in Westfield on October passes, efficient setting, firepower coming from everywhere com-bined with sound mental play werethe ingredients that set this teamapart from the tri-captain Nikki LeBlancstoked the fires with nine kills andsparked six digs.

7 Junior Sophie Hallabetted with 16 assists and four digswhile senior Cari Rock, rocked with10 service points. Lizzelle Cintronnotched six kills and six blocks forElizabeth. They are a very hard hitting team,they are very capable at playing manypositions and they use many attacks, said Westfield Head Coach BeverlyTorok. We were prepared for them, tobe what they were, a tough the second game we tightened up alittle bit. They loosened up a little bit,made some plays and made some thingshappen. But, we have been playingvery well together and we have beenpicking up the tempo. A lot of our playsare starting to come together and we remaking it happen. Blue Devil tri-captain, JillWoodbury said, We knew comingin, not to take this game too came out to play and mixed up thehits and controlled the offense verywell.

8 They instead, only went to oneplayer. We, on the other hand had a lotmore offense than just Nikki, we hadAllie, Carrie, Lisa Venezia and MaggieCurran to go to. We passed really wellin the first game, then in the secondgame, we felt a little bit tight and gotinto that little slump, but we picked itright up again. The shocked Minutemen neverposed a threat in the first game. NikkiLeBlanc registered five-straightserves. Juniors Ali McMahon andJackie LeBlanc added three servesapiece to seal the victory. Our coach told us not to get tooexcited, Jackie pointed out. I thinkthe difference was that we talked alot with each other and our executionwas good. All of our players on thecourt really pass well, so we reallyhad the edge there. October 29, 2002 is the last day for mailingabsentee ballots to the Union County Clerk in for by Betancourt for Council Committee, Jay MacDonald Treasurer, 219 Linden Avenue, Westfield, NJ 07090 KAMINSKI, PITTS RIPPLE THE NETS occer Vikings Shut OutLady Highlanders, 2-0By FRED LECOMTES pecially Written for The Westfield Leader and The TimesThe Union Catholic High Schoolgirls Soccer team and the GovernorLivingston girls battled to a 2-2 over-time tie on September 18 and a gamefor bragging rights followed in Ber-keley Heights on October 9.

9 Afteranother high intensity drama, the 8-1-1 Vikings prevailed, keeper Erica Ortiz excelledand made 15 saves to earn the shut-out. Highlander Kathy Dreitleinstopped 12. Viking Lara Kaminskiopened the scoring in the first half ona solo power shot from 25 yards forward Amanda Pitts re-turned to the line up after sufferingan injury scored a second goal thatinsured the victory. We saw the Highlander girls eightconsecutive weeks during the sum-mer, scrimmaged them, then playedthem for the first time a few weeksback, and I tell you, there is not muchbetween the two of us, said VikingHead Coach Jim Revel. I think whatwe have discovered is the way wehave to play. As the season has goneby, we found that we can t run witha lot of teams because we re reallynot that quick, although we are incertain spots.

10 So, we have to playgood positional defense and take ourchances where we can. This gamewas a blueprint of that. We have toplay solid defense, keep the ball outof our net and hope for some now, that s our main concern,play good defense and let the offensetake care of itself. Kaminski hit her vicious shot thatrang out from 25 yards out, hittingthe Highlander target at 34:30. TheCONTINUED ON PAGE 14 SCARE YOURSELF SILLY!1325 Terrill Road SCOTCH PLAINS, NJ (908) 322-5555 Complete Nursery Greenhouses Landscaping Silk Plants Custom Design ServicesDEBITAlso Visit Us At: : Monday-Saturday 7am-5pm Sunday 9am-5pm OPEN YEAR ROUNDG reat Gardens Begins Ornamental Cabbage & Kale, Grasses & Peppers Fall Magic Proven Winners And Much OCT.