On Wednesday November 5, the New Jersey Athletic Conference tournament men’s soccer semi final took place at MSU Soccer Park between the top-seed Montclair State Red Hawks and No. 4 TCNJ Lions. Despite the disparity in seeding, the last meeting between these two NJAC rivals on October 4 ended in Montclair State taking a 2-1 victory in Ewing.
From the get-go, TCNJ (12-4-5) had more energy than the hosts and they advanced to the NJAC Finals thanks to a stunning 4-1 victory on the road against top-seeded Montclair State (12-3-5) Wednesday night.
TCNJ nearly got off to an early start when they had a corner kick. Midfielder J.J. Zaun swooped in to the six-yard box area and headed the ball wide left of the net.
Not long after, the visitors struck first when junior midfielder/forward Chris Meder received a pass down the right wing and unleashed a right-footed shot that beat Montclair State goalkeeper and Princeton-native Pierre Soumeillant to the bottom left corner of the net to put the visitors out in front 1-0 in the 14th minute.
Shortly after, standout Montclair State defender Kenneth Neves got injured and had to be replaced by Noah Dinnal. Just four minutes later, the Lions were roaring again and this time Dinnal swooped in to tackle Meder who was 1-on-1 with Soumeillant and avert going down by two.
In the 21st minute, Montclair State head coach Todd Tumelty brought on freshman phenom Tomas Monteiro, a big target man for his side to try to work their offense through. In the 28th minute, Monteiro got the Red Hawks first shot on goal when he was played into the 18-yard box by a through ball and unleashed a right-footed shot that was saved comfortably by TCNJ goalkeeper Sean Najdzinowicz.
Right before halftime, Meder was knocking at the door again for TCNJ. The junior received a pass inside the 18 and unleashed a left-footed strike that had to be stopped by Soumeillant to keep the hosts down by one heading into halftime.
Montclair State started off the second half on the front foot when Kevin Contreras beat a defender along the end line and dribbled all the way to the front of goal. Contreras then took a shot while sliding that was blocked by a TCNJ defender. Five minutes later, Tobon sent a cross from the left wing into the 18-yard box where it was met by the head of Monteiro but he headed it just wide right. A minute after that, Montclair State nearly got its breakthrough when Monteiro headed a cross on frame but his shot was saved by the outstretched hand of Najdzinowicz.
Shortly after this, TCNJ got out on the counter attack and, with nobody back for Montclair State, had a 2-on-0 against Soumeillant, who forced Zaun to shoot the ball around the left post. However immediately after this, TCNJ passed the ball into the six-yard box for Meder who shot lightly and Soumeillant grabbed it but behind the goal line. After reviewing the play with his linesman, the referee awarded the goal to the visitors and the Lions held a 2-0 advantage in the 56th minute.
Five minutes past the hour mark, TCNJ continued to be aggressive in the attacking third and it paid off when Meder achieved the hat trick to put the visitors up 3-0. The goal was assisted by freshman Aidan Ayar.
The Red Hawks would not go quietly though. In the 72nd minute, after a MSU shot got blocked by TCNJ’s backline, Freshman forward Kyle Moore volleyed the ball straight back at goal. It was saved by Najdzinowicz, but then MSU senior forward Danny Tobon swooped in and kicked the ball into the back of the net to pull the hosts within two.
Amazingly, every time Montclair State had a scoring chance or in this case their first goal of the game, TCNJ answered. That’s exactly what happened in the 73rd minute, when Meder scored his fourth of the game, a shot into the bottom left corner of the net, assisted by junior Matias Hornos.
That iced the game, as Montclair State continued to push for a second goal but were unable to get one past Najdzinowicz, who ended the game with six saves.
MSU HEAD COACH TODD TUMELTY
On TCNJ’s performance.
Look, they’re a young team. They played really well, they played hard and I give my hats off to them. They did a good job. Like I said, we need to do a better job and we will going forward.
On why his team wasn’t able to break down TCNJ’s backline.
They got 11 guys in the box and they made it difficult so I think it’s not easy when they get that many guys and we have to attack quicker. If we could’ve attacked quicker, we would’ve had more success but we slowed the game down a little bit and let them get behind us.
On Neves getting injured early and trying to overcome those moments.
Yeah, losing Kenny (Neves) early was tough because they were lumping balls forward and he does a really good job of that. We have a next man up mentality and unfortunately the next guy up wasn’t good enough today but we’ll work on it and we’ll fix it for next year.
On gaining playoff experience for the future.
I mean, obviously, these are big moments. First time in the NJAC tournament for a lot of (our) guys. I was hoping we were going to make it into the NCAA tournament, I don’t think we will but these moments are what grows guys and that will help them going forward.
It was not the ending that Montclair State seniors Danny Tobon, Kenet Lopez and Jackson Perata had hoped for but the program has plenty of good young players like freshman Tomas Monteiro who was named NJAC rookie of the year, which should bode well for the future. On the TCNJ side of things, the Lions will advance to the championship game where they will face Rowan University on the road on November 8 at 7:30 p.m.
