Eagles look for redemption against local foes
BY SHAWN LAYTON Staff Writer
After running into some tough competition last week, the Edison High School boys soccer team dropped to 7-4-1 on the season. The Eagles will look to get back on track with matches scheduled against New Brunswick, Edison, and Old Bridge this week.

Edison began last week with an impressive 4-1 win over Watchung Hills, a team the Eagles could very well see again in the North Jersey II state tournament this postseason.

"Watchung Hills came into that game 6-2 so it was a very nice win for us," Edison head coach Bill Clausen said. "We got a pair of goals from Mike Ferraro and goals from Akshay Gupta and Anest Roberts."

Goals from Gupta and Roberts have been rather frequent this season as the tandem has combined for nearly 20 goals in 12 games.

"They complement each other very well," Clausen said. "Roberts is just a sophomore but he's a man out there."

Unfortunately, even the scoring prowess of Roberts and Gupta could not prevent the Eagles from dropping a pair of games to East Brunswick last week and a 4-2 loss to South Brunswick.

"It's so tough to play back-to-back games," Clausen said. "It's even more difficult when the opponents are such quality teams like East and South Brunswick."

After losing the first of two games with East Brunswick by a 1-0 score, the Eagles appeared poised to avenge the loss in the rematch when they took an early 1-0 lead.

"We had a lead until East Brunswick scored the equalizer with a second left on the clock before the half," Clausen said. "That was deflating. They used that momentum to put two more on the board at the start of the second half. We did have other chances to score, but we just couldn't put the ball in the net a third time and lost 3-2.

Like they did against East Brunswick, the Eagles played South Brunswick to a 1- 1 tie at the half. After falling behind 2-1 in the second half, Edison evened the score before South Brunswick responded with two unanswered goals to go on to a 4-2 win. Roberts and Ferraro scored for Edison.

"Our kids played very well against top competition," Clausen said. "I think this year's team is different from some other teams of the recent past because we have a legitimate offense. Now, people have to worry about our offense."

The Eagles will look to rebound from last week's losses when the schedule resumes with a match against J.P. Stevens at 6:00 p.m. Oct. 11. After the meeting with Stevens, Edison will close out the week with a 10:00 a.m. home game against visiting Old Bridge. The Eagles defeated Stevens 2-0 and Old Bridge 3-0 the first time through the schedule.

"Right now we have to cut down on some of our ridiculous mistakes," Clausen said. "We need one more win to qualify for the state tournament and that's a definite goal. I can't complain about our play last week because we were in every single game. We just have to move forward and play well this week."