Knights Girls Soccer Strikes Again Against Millburn

The old saying goes, "a tie is like kissing your sister."

But what do you call it when one team beats the other team 3-2 and the game ends with 5:38 remaining after officials called it because of lightning and rain?

That was the case on Monday afternoon in Millburn when officials, forced to make a call due to inclement weather, declared West Essex girls soccer victorious over Millburn, the defending Essex County champs.

Both Knights Head Coach Bryan McNaught and freshman forward Erica Perrotta, who scored the winning goal, said they would rather have had the game go the full 80 minutes.

"It's kind of disappointing, because I wanted to play the final five minutes," said Perrotta. "They (Millburn) probably think that they would have scored in the last five minutes. I really wanted to win the game for the upper classmen."

"I preferred to play the last five minutes and I'm sure they wanted to," said Coach McNaught. "This was a huge win for us and they are the defending county champs for a reason."

But Millburn Head Coach Andy Sones did not make any excuses or bring up the the time remaining in the game. "They were the better team," Sones said.

Sones added that his team did not take advantage of opportunities that included a couple of shots in the first half that banged off the post. "We just didn't finish off," he said. Sones also added that there was no benefit of a wakeup call for his team with the defeat. "Losing is never a good thing," he said.

The Millers were coming into the season after a 17-6 record last fall, and, with only a couple of seniors graduating, they are the favorite to repeat as Essex County champions.

On the other side, West Essex finished with a 5-14 record in 2009, and a dozen of the 19 players on the West Essex varsity roster are freshman and sophomores.

West Essex might have had a slight advantage since they had a game coming into Monday. The Knights won their season opener Saturday at home against Seton Hall Prep. The battle with the Knights was Millburn's first game of the season.

But ultimately the advantage for the Knights was striking first and getting ahead 2-0.

It might not have been Millburn's day as Perretti hit the post right of Knights keeper Masteron with only eight minutes into the game.

But West Essex also had some opportunities, especially from sophomore midfielder Brianna Panico.

The Knights got first on the board with the help of Perrotta. The freshman forward took the ball down the sideline and kicked it into the middle of the field to find freshman forward Mel Felcher who bounced it over Graessle with a little more than 20 minutes left in the half.

The quick Millburn team went down the field and again Perretti hit the post, the same side as last time, with 18 minutes left in the first half.

West Essex took the ball and got it to senior forward Melissa Kuscin just past the midfield. The gambling Graessle came out high to try to stop Kuscin, but the Knights forward got by her and went toward the goal uncontested for a 2-0 West Essex lead.

Millburn finally got on the board as Perretti fed Beimfohr and placed it past Masterson to slice the Knights lead in half, 2-1, with 12 minutes remaining in the first half.

And the Millers did what they do best by outrunning and maneuvering their opponents by getting the ball down from their end to West Essex's in a matter of seconds.

Beimfohr smacked it right past Masterson to tie the game at two with a little less than 34 minutes left in the game, and it appeared that was the end of the upset bid by the Knights.

But West Essex would come down field and Perrotta made an excellent play in wrestling the ball away from the Millburn defender and putting it by Millburn goalie Tori Graessle. "I just put pressure on the defender and kicked it to the right of the goalie," Perrotta said.

While there was plenty of time remaining in the game, the powerful offense of Millburn junior forward Taylor Perretti and senior forward Katie Beimfohr were clamped down by some of the West Essex defenders, including junior Shannon Wojcik, sophomore Dana Silverblatt and freshman Anna George among others.

In addition, West Essex freshman keeper Amanda Masterson came out on a couple of occasions to stop the Millburn tide.

But Perrotta got the last laugh with a hustling goal past Graessle.

The Knights look to go 3-0 by hosting Montclair, the other Essex County finalist last season, on Wednesday.