PISCATAWAY – Derek Afonso’s first penalty kick didn’t go so well. A mis-foot, he called it, resulting in a South Brunswick save.
The Monroe senior got another shot in Round 7 of Monday’s Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament boys soccer final. This time he delivered to seal a 5-4 shootout win after double overtime ended 1-1. The top-seeded Falcons claimed their eighth GMCT in program history.
It was sort of a redemption for Afonso and the Falcons (13-5-2), who fell last season to Old Bridge in the GMCT final via a shootout.
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“I didn’t beat myself up over it,” said Afonso, who also missed a PK in 2022. “The same thing happened last year so I knew I just needed to get my revenge. This is for my seniors last year, too – shout out to them. Amazing team last year, but that was for them.”
It capped a frenetic final with things happening that don’t happen too often on a soccer pitch.
“It was an unusual game,” Monroe coach Steven MacKenzie said. “Unusual final. But we had to play through it.”
The officials issued several yellow cards and two players on each side were ejected, making it nine against nine for the final five minutes.
Then, South Brunswick (10-6-1) essentially had a do-over on its own penalty kick in the 50th minute. Aidan Chang scored and ran to his left followed by his teammates, but the celebration only lasted moments. The officials ruled that a South Brunswick player on the outside entered the 18-yard line early and they ordered a re-kick, MacKenzie confirmed.
Take two. Essentially, it was like a timeout in football to ice the field goal kicker.
The unflappable Chang simply scored again, this time running to his right in joy as second-seeded South Brunswick took a 1-0 lead.
Monroe put pressure on down the stretch up a man and tied it 1-1 with seven minutes left. The Falcons’ Altin Nikezi booted in a short-range shot off a scramble in the center of the box following a free kick from Joseph Eshammy.
Both goalkeepers had good games. Monroe’s Justin Graham made seven saves and South Brunswick’s Logan Rogers recorded eight saves.
However, with about five minutes left in double overtime, Monroe senior Kumeil Kagalwala started stretching and fielding balls. To his left and right he dove on the ground. For the shootout, Monroe went to the bullpen and put in Kagalwala, who played just four games all season.
“He’s very good at PKs,” MacKenzie said. “He’s confident and that’s what you need. You need confidence out there. He believes in himself. We believed in him. … On the flip side, Justin’s confident in his ability to take them.”
Oh, Kagalwala could admit he was “also a little nervous because it’s a final, but I knew I’d be fine.”
Kagalwala made two saves in the shootout and Graham, moving over to a kicker, scored twice. Aidan Ayar and Anthony Alborea also scored in the win. South Brunswick had two goals from Chris Gerbavac (two), Ayush Ramanan and Mason Ianniello.
“I was excited,” Kagalwala said. “It was really nerve-racking, but I knew we’d come away with the dub and I’m just happy for my teammates and I. It feels amazing to be honest.”
Monroe has made the GMCT three years in a row. And three years in a row it came down to penalty kicks. The Falcons edged North Brunswick in 2021.
Two out of three ain’t bad.
“We prepare for these moments,” MacKenzie said. “That’s our goal. Our goal as a program is to compete for championships in the end. Obviously, with tournaments, you’ve got to have talent, but you also have to get a little lucky and we’ve been fortunate.”
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ boys soccer: Monroe wins the GMCT championship
Source: https://sports.yahoo.com/monroe-boys-soccer-wins-drama-092836483.html
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