Sports Wrap: Aviators Girls Stay Home, Boys Go On the Road

There were different fortunes for the Hasbrouck Heights soccer teams when it came to the boys soccer and girls soccer state playoff pairings.

While the Lady Aviators will be at home when the state playoffs start next week, the Heights boys soccer team will have to drive about an hour away to Newton.

The Heights girls soccer team is the third seed as they try to go on a run like in 2008 when the Lady Aviators won the Group 2 North 1 state sectional championship.

For the boys soccer team they are the 13th seed and will travel to seventh-seeded Newton in the first round game on Tuesday. An upset win over Newton, would send the Aviators to the winner of 12th-seeded Elmwood Park-fifth-seeded Wallkill Valley on Friday, Nov. 4.

For the girls team they will host 14th-seeded Kittatinny on Monday, Halloween with the game starting at 2 p.m. If the Lady Aviators win over Kittatinny they would host the winner of 11th-seeded Becton-sixth-seeded Westwood on Thursday in the quarterfinals. Only second-seeded Ramsey and top-seeded Glen Rock are higher seeds in Group 2 North 1.

Football

Hasbrouck Heights lost a crucial game in its bid for state playoffs in dropping a 25-22 decision to Lyndhurst on Friday night at Depken Field.

The Aviators held a 22-10 lead at halftime, but Lyndhurst behind quarterback Danny Kesack to best Heights in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. It was the second loss in a row where Hasbrouck Heights lost in the last quarter. The Aviators lost 20-14 at Becton on Oct. 4 in East Rutherford. Sandwiched between the two losses, Heights defeated Bogota, 28-24.

Lyndhurst's Kesack hit Jeramey Schaeffer for a 19-yard touchdown with a little more than eight minutes left in the game.

The Aviators though could not respond.

Hasbrouck Heights head coach Nick Delcalzo said that the difference was Kesack. "We could not get any pressure on their quarterback," said Delcalzo. "We just could not score in the second half.

For the Aviators sophomore quarterback Darren Iurato threw three touchdown passes including a pair to senior Mike Pikowski including a 11-yard throw in the final seconds of the first half that gave Heights the 22-10 lead. Iurato also hit David Im on a 13-yard touchdown in the second quarter.

Hasbrouck Heights faces Secaucus on Friday night at Depken Field. After the loss to Lyndhurst, the Aviators were in the 10th spot of Group 1 North 1 state section power rankings with the top eight qualifying for the state tournament. Heights might have an outside chance of making the state tournament, but would need a win over Secaucus plus some upsets to grab the eighth spot.

Cross Country

Both the Hasbrouck Heights cross country teams fell short of winning Bergen County group titles last weekend at Darlington in Mahwah.

The Lady Aviators came the closest with a second place finish, falling just nine points behind Bogota, 36-45. On the boys side Heights came 15 points behind again Bogota, this time for second place. The Aviators finished third with a score of 81.

In the battle for first place in the individual race, Heights senior Rebecca Fortoul could not keep up with Bogota's Elizabeth O'Brien. Fortoul ran a time of 20:05.28, but it was almost 40 seconds behind O'Brien's time of 19:25.07.

The Aviators had a pack of three in juniors Kelly Moran (21:53.19), Jess Guerra (22:00.78) and Ali Robitaille (22:02.41) who finished eighth, ninth and 10th respectively.

On the boys side senior Rolando Mendoza came in third in the individual side with a time of 17:00.51 with only Wallington's Domenic D'Agostino and Palisades Park's Jorge Maldonado, first and second respectively, ahead of him.

The next highest runners on the boys side with sophomore Marc Mastropietro (17:40.26), sophomore Stephen Hodulik (18:14.77) and junior Connor Gillespie (18:58.28) in ninth, 15th and 22nd places respectively.

Girls Tennis

The Heights girls tennis hopes in the state playoffs were dashed, but the team still had a couple of regular season matches remaining because of the rain outs.

On Wednesday the Lady Aviators swept by Saddle Brook, 5-0, on the road.

While it was sweep through the five matches, two of them had to go to three sets to win their match.

Aviators Christina Le came from behind after losing the first set, 6-2, in sweeping the last two sets 6-4, 6-1. And that was also the case in the second doubles. The Heights duo of Shannon McMullin and Julie Nass also lost the first set, this time 6-3. The pair came back to defeat Saddle Brook's Jessica Soltys and Lyna Dombal, 6-4, 7-3. First singles Nina Messery won 6-0, 6-1 while Aviators second single Jan Cheng defeated Saddle Brook's Samantha Presti, 5-1, 5-4.

Girls Soccer

The Lady Aviators prepped for the postseason by taking on one of the better teams in North Jersey in Eastern Christian. Heights was tied with the Eagles in the first half at one, but could not hit the back of the net in the second half.

The Lady Aviators dropped a 3-1 in the North Jersey Interscholastic Conference crossover game on Wednesday. The game was tied at one in the first half with a goal from Jenny White with an assist from Maggie Filja.

But Eastern Christian scored twice in the second half to put away Hasbrouck Heights. Senior goal keeper Julie Sheridan made seven saves in the defeat.

Boys Soccer

The Aviators boys team prepped for the state tournament with a quality 2-0 victory over Queen of Peace on Monday in a NJIC Meadowlands crossover contest in Hasbrouck Heights.

The Aviators received a goal in each half as Hasbrouck Heights defense and goalie Roland Gamez shut down a powerful Golden Griffins offense in the contest. Gamez made four saves to preserve the shutout.

Aviators Gabe Toledo scored in the first half and Tyler Nascimento added insurance in the second half to back Gamez's effort.