Boys Soccer Wins Opener

The Livingston Lancers boy's varsity soccer team opened its season Monday with a 4-0 victory over Belleville away.

Just one minute and thirteen seconds into the game, the Lancers struck on a goal by senior Julian Craitar. Samuel Butensky started the play by serving a ball to Eric Sugarman, who flicked the ball with his head to Craitar. Craitar then ran onto the ball and slipped it past the charging Belleville goalie for a 1-0 lead.

In the second half, fellow senior Sean Rucker made it 2-0 when senior Dan Cilenti's throw-in was flicked to the back post by Julian Craitar and Rucker tucked it home. With about twenty two minutes into the second half, sophomore Ryan Ladell headed in a cross on the back post from junior Sam Katz to make it 3-0. Sophomore Max Shevrin finished off the scoring for Livingston by beating the Belleville goalie with a shot to the near post.

Senior goalie Jacob Karpen picked up his first shutout victory in goal this season, as he made four saves on the day as the Lancer defense stifled the Belleville offense. Senior captain Samuel Butensky, along with fellow seniors Chris Bargoud and Jordan Shafir, limited Belleville to just seven shots. Junior Nick Cheesman also did a solid job keeping the Belleville attackers off balance.          

Also playing well were seniors German Valdez and Matthew Leu. Juniors Taylor Genovese and Chris Soares did a nice job playing up top. Sophomore's Jared Goldstern, Tomer Niv, Kyle Rulka, Zachary Panzner all helped to keep the Lancers attack balanced. Freshmen Zachary Beckerman played well in his first game on the varsity level.  Also on the roster this year are senior's Jason Fertig and Andy Block, who sat out due to injuries, and junior goalie Brady O'Connor.

Livingston plays at home on Wednesday and then travels the next day to play Caldwell. The Lancers are now 1-0 on the year.