Miller Boys Take First Loss of Season

The Columbia boys soccer team is playing like they have something to prove, and the Millers were their latest victims on Monday afternoon at Meadowlands Park. The Cougars used three first half goals to build a commanding early lead and held on for a 4-2 win, earning their first division win of the season.

"They underestimated us. They did not rank us, they did not talk about us," said Columbia head coach Gene Chyzowych about The Star Ledger's rankings. "Nobody mentioned us. We are the leftovers. We want to stand up now from the chair, rise and shine and show everyone what kind of leftovers we are."

With 34:50 left to play in the opening half, Columbia's Jeremy Witherspoon scored the first of his two goals, knocking in a high bouncer from mid-air above Miller keeper Corbin Stevens. Less than three minutes later, Witherspoon found Luke Horowitz on a low cross in front of Millburn's net, and Horowitz tapped in the wide-open score from point-blank range, staking the Cougars to a 2-0 lead.

"I think I played well, but I played well because the entire team played well," Witherspoon said. 'We passed well and we just basically dominated the game. The other team tried to come at us hard but we were able to figure out what they were doing, get around it and play our game."

In the closing minutes of the opening half, Columbia's Kai Greene possessed the ball in front of Millburn's net and sent a pass out of the box to Mark Yearick at the top center, where he lobbed a high sailing shot off of the fingertips of Stevens, sending the Cougars to the break with a comfortable 3-0 lead.

Millburn was able to take control of the contest for the first 15-20 minutes of the second half, keeping the ball in Columbia's defensive third. At the 31:45 mark of the second half, Drew Rosenberg got the Millers on the board off of a free kick just outside of the box, brought on by a Columbia handball.

"In the first half we were playing very direct. We fell into their style play. That's not how we play," said Millburn head coach Rob Grosso. "So the second half, we attempted to make combination plays, create width on the flank, get balls back into the middle and actually play some soccer."

In the 31st minute Witherspoon collected his own rebound off of the post and found the back left post, kicking a low strike diagonally across the box for the score. Jeremy Plump finished off the scoring for the game, drilling a laser high and above Columbia's back-up keeper.

"He's the best center-forward in the state," Chyzowych said of Witherspoon. "He's in his own class. He's strong, he has a shot and he's smart."

The shots on goal for each team were relatively equal, with the Millers taking 20 and Columbia 16. But the quality of Columbia's shots were much better with excellent ball movement in Millburn's half of the field setting up a lot of great scoring opportunities.

"Columbia's pretty fit, they're fast and they play very direct," Grosso said. "So if we can't clear the ball out of the back and defend well, we're going to have a hard season. It's going to be hard for us to stay in games. That's what we're going to be working on."

On the contrary, many of Millburn's shots were not great scoring chances, with only one of their scores coming in normal play, not on a free kick, corner or penalty, and even that one came with most of Columbia's starters resting on the bench.

The win for Columbia improved them to 2-1, while the loss dropped the Millers to 1-1 on the season. The Cougars are on the road against East Side on Wednesday, and the Millers are home against Orange on Thursday.

"This was really important because we're trying to win our division and this sends out a message to the other teams that we're a good team and they should look out for us," Witherspoon said.