Highly Regarded St. Benedict's Prevails 1-0 Over North

Sunday, 9/20 (Newark, NJ)

Any successful team or program needs to measure itself from time to time. Throughout North’s storied history, every PCL match is a litmus test. It is always our main mission to win the Catholic League Title whatever comes after is just gravy. But every now and then, the itch to see just how good one is needs to be scratched. Even with the PCL now in the PIAA, which allows our schools to compare on a statewide basis, not all of these championships are fair because the PCL is limited in the number of teams compared to its suburban peers. Today, North stepped outside its comfort zone and represented the PCL in such a test.

The Falcons traveled to highly regarded St. Benedict’s to take on the #4 ranked Grey Bees at New Jersey Institute of Technology. The Grey Bees are highly regarded with a soccer heritage the likes of what North had in the 1960s. After our game, they are deserving of both the reputation and the ranking.

Analysis

Each team has a contrasting style of play. St. Benedict’s is very methodical team looking to exploit any weakness by working the ball throughout the midfield and defensive backs trying to isolate forwards on defenders or crossing balls to switch directions in hopes of a catching the opponent too pinched. North on the other hand, plays a more direct style and attacking more in the bottom third.

Game Action: McCarthy Superman for Falcons

The game in fact played out exactly like that, the one thing that North had and the Grey Bees did not is John McCarthy. As we have been saying all year, this young man is the best goal tender bar none in the City and its suburbs. If you think I am kidding, how about this, 20 + saves tonight, many acrobatic and several after going down with an injury.

In the first half, St. Benedict’s controlled most of the possession. While describing their style deliberate, it still generated about 10 scoring chances. However, North’s back line of Sr. Mark Brown, Jr. Dan Venuto, Sr. Tyler Ward and Soph. Austin Baranukas forced St. Benedict’s to take shots from long range. In the 20th minute, the right midfielder hit a cracker from 30 that hit the cross bar, a few minutes later however, his counter part, the left midfielder cranked one up from 25 that knuckled and swerved past the outstretched McCarthy. The few attacks that North mounted seemed to keep St. Benedict’s off balance but they were able to stymie and consistency that North tried to develop.

The second stanza while starting out on the same theme quickly developed in a more direct game as North’s backs continued to purposely move forward to compress the field and limit the Grey Bees any type of purposeful possession. As the game became more back and forth, the more North seemed to gain in confidence. The similarity of the first half was McCarthy. While stopping an equal number of shots, the difference in this half is the development time of each shot. In the first half, there was buildup with very little transition, in this half, it was mainly transition. Shots happened at a breakneck pace which gave North more chances to equalize. Unfortunately, the Falcons were not able to get on the board, but in the waning seconds North two corners forced the keeper to make a nice deflection while on the second, Dan Venuto missed from six yards out on a head ball that went wide right of the near post.

Sidebars……

Did you know that while the game was played on the spacious, sprint turf of NJIT, St. Benedict’s also has a turfed field on its campus, hmmm…..

Prior to the game, the St. Benedict’s team entered the stadium by signing and chanting, it comes by the way of that each morning (8 AM) all students, staff and teachers meet for song, readings and prayer……

While highly ranked at #4 nationally, North had just as many fans at the stadium as the Grey Bees……..

In region where St. Benedict’s plays also uses a two man referee system like our PIAA, they too need to jump into the new millennium and use what the rest of the world knows, a head ref and two assistant referees…….

There was a man sitting not far from North’s bench taking pictures with a very powerful camera. I asked him who he was shooting for and he advised that he works for the school. I asked him if it was possible for him to send some pictures for our website and blog. He game me his card and asked me to send him an email. His card read that he was Assistant Headmaster. This would be like North’s President or Principal taking pictures during the game…….

Speaking of personnel, North’s AD was not spotted at the game. Quite possibly he was at the school’s smaller turfed field……….

The clock at the NJIT field, while big, was facing west (field runs north and south) and therefore in the sun, so the only time to see the clock or the score would be , say around midnight……..

There was not trainer from the home school, and guess who needed one………..

St. Benedict’s is a mission school looking to educate boys. Of its 500 or so students, over 50% are non-Catholic. In fact, there is no school system set up by the Church, most, like St. Benedict’s are independent. It cost $8,000 per year in tuition, however many of the boys also board there. Over 65% of the boys receive some sort of financial help to attend……..

Next Up

The Falcons return to regular season action on Tuesday, September 22 as the LaSalle Explorers come calling. Game time is 5 PM at Archbishop Ryan.