East Boys' Soccer Tops Lenape in Group 4 Playoffs

It hasn’t taken much for the game to swing one way or the other when Cherry Hill East and Lenape have clashed this season—only a pair of chances separated the two teams, who traded 1-0 wins in the regular season.

So when East keeper Steven Oberlander came out to challenge Lenape’s Justin Blumberg at the 14-minute mark Friday and the Cougars’ keeper wasn’t able to punch the ball away, it looked like the inevitable 1-0 game yet again.

Blumberg, while clearly off-balance, was still able to get off a shot at the wide-open net—but with little power behind it, there was a sliver of hope.

In stepped Nevin Shanker.

The Cougars’ junior back pounced on the ball, clearing it off the line to stifle what was the Indians’ best scoring chance in the first-round Group 4 playoff game.

“I thought I was going to get to it on time,” Shanker said. “All I could do was go to the goal.”

Shanker’s clear had the added effect of flipping the match’s momentum.

While Lenape had dominated possession in the early going, the missed opportunity seemed to deflate the Indians, who only managed a handful of counterattacks in the first half, while the Cougars took control in both the midfield and offensive end.

East had trouble converting in the first half, as well—senior Jake Faford had a shot go inches wide right with a little more than six minutes left in the first half, and Adam Cohler sent a cross in the final minute of the half that scooted a foot in front of the goalmouth, but had no one to send it home.

Adam Cohen finally changed that in the second half. After Andrew Adler saved a ball from going over the endline with a blind cross into the box, Cohen found himself with the ball at his feet after it had ping-ponged off a couple of his teammates and a few defenders.

Cohen fired it home past Lenape keeper Nick Maricondi, and the celebration was on.

“I just happened to be in the right place at the right time,” Cohen said. “I was in a state of shock…then I realized it was a goal.”

Adler would get a few more chances at setting up his teammates, sending cross after cross in from the right side—he pinged one off the outside corner of the goal, had another that nearly dropped into the net behind Maricondi, but finally found a leaping Garrett McVeigh on the far post, who headed it in with just over eight minutes in the game to make it 2-0.

“My first ones, I got a bad touch,” Adler said. “Finally, I got the one I wanted, and then Garrett McVeigh did a nice job finishing it.”

East now turns to the second round and a potential showdown with Eastern, which has beaten East twice this season—a 2-0 win in September and a 2-1 overtime win in October.

The Vikings don’t play their first-round game, against Toms River South, until Monday, so the Cougars get some time to rest and recover.

Should that third meeting with Eastern come to be, Adler said things will be different.

“We usually have a tough time against them,” he said, “but I think we’re due.”