Haddonfield Boys' Soccer Defeats West Deptford

There will be no free rides in the Colonial Conference this year. The Haddonfield boys’ soccer team knows it will have to earn every victory.

The Bulldawgs earned one Monday night in a well-played, hard-fought match. They combined a strong defense effort and goals scored early in each half to defeat the Eagles, 2-0, in a Liberty Division contest played at Christopher Weber Field in West Deptford Park.

 “There are a lot of real good teams in the division,” said Haddonfield coach Joe Falana who notched his 596^th career victory. “West Deptford played really hard tonight. I thought we did a good job battling them.”

The Bulldawgs, 5-0 and ranked fourth in the South Jersey Soccer Coaches Association poll, took a 1-0 lead 5:35 into the game. Sophomore forward Luke Pease took a throw-in from the left side of the field. His throw found Alex Johnston in the middle. Johnston played the ball to Kaleb Morales, who made a move on the defender and chipped the ball over the West Deptford keeper, Kevin Brockway.

“I got the ball in the middle and played it through his legs,” Morales said. “It was a great set up. I just dinked it (over the keeper).”

The score remained the same throughout the rest of the half, but not without some anxious moments as Bulldawgs’ keeper Vincent DelDuca was forced to make a couple of diving saves. He made a brilliant stop midway through the first half on Kyle Redrow, diving to intercept the ball, then scrambling to his feet to secure it before the West Deptford attacker could knock home the rebound.

“There was no time to relax,” DelDuca said. “There was constant movement out there. It was huge getting that early goal, but I don’t think we played that well for the next 30 minutes. I think we were kind of flat. But we held on.”

In the second half, Luke Grabiak entered the game at the 7:30 mark. Almost immediately he found himself facing a wide open net. The Bulldawgs had played the ball deep into the Eagles defensive end. Pease tracked the ball down along the goal line, drawing out Brockway. As the keeper scrambled to get back into position, Pease passed the ball into the middle and Grabiak hit the ball into the corner of the net.

“It was a big goal for us,” Grabiak said. “I was sort of waiting in the middle there. Luke shot the ball back across the goal mouth and it came out to me and I hit it. I was about 12 to 15 yards out.”

West Deptford kept the pressure on and DelDuca had to make another diving stop on Kyle Redrow as well as defend a couple of well-placed, corner kicks, but he and the backs led by Lou Pera and Sean Campbell protected the shutout.