GL Boys Soccer Advances to State Sectional Semi's with 3-0 Win

(This article written by GL dad Jeff Bamundo)

In almost clinical fashion, Governor Livingston (17-1-1) defeated Summit (11-9-1) by a 3-0 score Friday night, under the lights at Snyder Avenue Park.  The win moved GL into a Central Jersey Group 2 Semi-Final match-up against Rumson on Tuesday at 2pm on GL's Turf Field.

But before we focus on their next opponent, let's look at how they handled their last one.

The game was not even one minute old when the Summit keeper, Josh Rosen, faced and parried the first GL shot of the night off to his right. Julian Light chased the ball down, turned and centered a pass that was instinctively deflected just inside the far post by Kyle Morris for an stunningly fast 1-0 lead.

Summit, playing GL for the 3rd time this season, was spirited in their response. Indeed, they never stopped playing with an emotional and physical edge that might have served them well against another team on another night.

But not this team and not on this night.

The Highlanders absorbed and repelled Summit's efforts to get any kind of quality shot on their GK, Jon Robbins. And along with some end of game assistance from back-up Matt Peltier, GL was able to secure its 9th shutout of the year.

In truth, GL had such clear control of the game that Athletic Director Stephen Hopkins considered it as good as he's seen from them this whole season:  "If we play like we did in the first 20 minutes, we can play with anyone."

Just about 10 minutes after their first goal, the result of a team passing play that has become their trademark, it was an individual move and finish that gave them their second.

Anthony Oliveira picked up the ball about 30 yards from goal and beat two defenders to face and then beat Rosen with a well-placed and firm shot to make it 2-0.  Again, the quickness of the move to get off the shot and clinical nature of the  finish were stunning.

But Summit was still undeterred and did their best to put together counter attack after counter attack.  The problem for Summit was that GL's midfielders and defense were not going to make it easy on them.

Knowing that a win would allow them to host the Sectional semi-final, the likes of center players Jeramey Robbins, Louie Marke and Dylan Weitz, as well as outsiders James Lynch and Mike McKenna, did not stop harrassing the Summit ball-handlers for one minute.

Also noteworthy was the work of outside left back Max Dooley who was repeatedly facing the runs of Summit's very fast forwards. Although not able to match them stride for stride, he made the adjustments necessary to limit the chances that came at the end of those efforts.
 
The game got to the half unchanged and then Summit seemed to get a lifeline when the ball got behind Robbins for the first and only time of the night. But the clear and illegal offside position of their scorer negated the goal.

Then came the killer.

Mike Bamundo delivered a free kick from midfield to the head of Oliveira who provided the gentlest of deflections onto Light. He took two touches and deftly lifted a cheeky chip shot over the onrushing Summit keeper. Rosen could do nothing but watch it drift over his head and into the empty net for a crushing and insurmountable 3-0 deficit that Summit could not hope to recover from.

To be sure, Summt never gave up -- flying and tackling all over the field. And for a while, they had the better of play in the second half after the offside goal was called back. It looked like GL was taking a breather until Light's goal put the game out of reach.

So next up is an impressive Rumson team whose 14-5-0 record shows the scars of defeats to some strong opponents, including a 2-1 OT loss to the #1 State ranked Christian Brothers Academy in their recent Shore County Tournament. They avenged an earlier season loss yesterday to Shore with that same score to book the semi-final date with the Highlanders.

This could turn out to be GL's toughest match of this very memorable season.