Boys Varsity Soccer Conquers West Essex 2-0

West Essex traveled to Livingston on October 21 to take on the Lancers with first place in the Liberty Division of the SEC on the line.

Livingston beat West Essex earlier in the season 2-0 and once again came away with a 2-0 victory to take a one game lead in the conference. JP Tirone scored both of the Livingston goals and Jacob Karpen came away with the shutout in goal. It was the fourth shutout in a row for the Lancers, which are led by defenders Samuel Butensky, David Patrone,Jordan Shafir, Andy Block and Julian Craitar.

The Lancers then traveled to Nutley and lost 1-0, which put them back into a first place tie with West Essex with two conference games remaining. 

Livingston's next opponent were the Bloomfield Bengals and the Lancers wasted no time in taking a 1-0 lead when Sean Rucker raced in and his pass deflected off Sam Katz and found JP Tirone at the back of the goal; Tirone redeflected the ball into the back of the net with fifteen seconds gone by in the game.

Livingston led 3-0 at halftime and cruised to a 5-1 victory. Sam Katz had two goals in the game.  Sean Rucker, Drew Wagner, Eric Sugarman, and Nick Cheeseman also played well. Forwards Brett Cohen, Tomer Niv, Roni Blanga and Taylor Genovese worked hard and created several excellent scoring opportunities. Ryan Ladell, Jared Goldstern, Zack Panzner, Kyle Rulka and Chris Bargoud all saw action and helped to give Livingston its eleventh victory of the season.

Next Livingston faced Caldwell and due to a West Essex loss earlier in the week, the Lancers wrapped up a share of the conference even before the game was played. Livingston knew if if tied or defeated the Chiefs it would win the conference outright; Livingston won by knocking off Caldwell for the third time this season 5-0.

Jordan Shafir put Livingston ahead 1-0 when he knocked in a rebound form about twenty yards out. JP Tirone made it 2-0 five minutes later, while Freshman Eric Sugarman made it 3-0 early in the second half. Another freshman, Tomer Niv, scored his first goal of the year as did Junior Matthew Leu. Brett Cohen, Nick Cheesman and Niv all had assists in the game as Livingston finished the regular season 12-5-4 and took home the first ever Liberty Division Championship. Jacob Karpen and Brady O'Connor combined for six saves to give the Lancers their tenth shutout of the year.

The Lancers got Gemran Valdez back this week after he was out two weeks with a concussion from the Essex County Tournament game against Millburn and are hoping to get Jason Fertig back in time for the state tournament. Fertig has been out with an ankle injury.