Falana Earns 600th Soccer Win

 boys' soccer coach Joe Falana notched his 600th career win Wednesday in a thrilling, come-from-behind 3-2 win at Sterling. All of his career wins have come at the helm of the Bulldawgs program, which won its 600th three weeks ago. The program's previous coach had five wins.

Falana had a simple response when asked if 600 meant anything special.

“Yeah, it does,” he said. “It’s 600. Every win feels good. This was a real tough battle. They (Sterling) are our annual rival and played real hard.”

Falana now holds a career record of 600-131-54 and is in his 37^th season as Haddonfield’s head coach. He joins Shawnee’s Brian Gibney as the only other New Jersey soccer coach in the 600-win club. Falana has guided the Dawgs to seven state championships, 14 South Jersey trophies and 23 Colonial Conference crowns.

“I’ve never played a game for Haddonfield,” Falana told his team after the game. “I’ve never scored a goal for Haddonfield, never made a save, never made one single play for Haddonfield. But I’ve been lucky enough to be on the sideline, enjoying the athletes, the soccer players, and the fine young men going out there on the field to make Haddonfield the school, Haddonfield the town, and Haddonfield the soccer program proud. The win is to you guys, not to me.”

Haddonfield got on the board early, when Louis Pera drilled home a penalty shot in the third minute. Sterling then got an equalizer in about the tenth minute when Jeff Guadagno took a free kick that bounced off the Bulldawg wall and past goalie Vincent DelDuca. The Knights then took the lead close to the final minute of the first half when Tommy Sheehan snuck a shot past DelDuca.

“I thought we had a lot of negative thoughts going on (in the first half),” Falana said. “We were complaining about the referees, getting distracted, and playing like you think you’re going to lose.

“I told the kids they were not going to lose. We were gonna play good defense, score a goal, play more good defense, and score another goal. And that’s exactly how it played out,” Falana said.

Haddonfield has always used the long throw and set pieces as a cornerstone of how they play, and, in typical Bulldawg fashion, those plays lifted the team in the second half.

Sam Ottenberg got the equalizer not long into the second half with a header off a long throw. The Knights didn’t back down though, and immediately came down with an aggressive attack. DelDuca made a huge save in the 33^rd minute, throwing a Sterling forward to the ground in the process. The Bulldawgs' Brendan Werner headed home the winning goal in the 35^th minute when Haddonfield used a series of corners and throws to set up one last corner kick.

“It was just right place, right time,” Werner said. “I made my back post run and it was there.”

Werner said that it was “just another game.” 

Just another game in a memorable season.