Sports
Raiders Boys Soccer Loses 1-0 to Millburn
The Millers win 1-0 in Scotch Plains to move on to the Group 3 championship tournament.
The Millburn boys beat the Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School Raiders 1-0 Friday afternoon in Scotch Plains, winning the North II Group 3 state sectional championship for the second straight season.
Scotch Plains ended its season with a stellar 19-3 record, reaching the sectional finals for the second consecutive season.
“I think it was certainly a tough loss for our guys because we have a senior-dominated team and we had very high intentions and we do have an outstanding team,” said Scotch Plains-Fanwood head coach Tom Breznitsky. “Unfortunately for the first half of the game today, I don’t think we played up to our caliber and that was a little bit of a disappointment.”
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The win marked Millburn’s third consecutive 1-0 win this postseason and their fourth straight shutout. They have not given up a goal in the playoffs.
With approximately 45 seconds left in the first half, Miller James Raystin took a shot at the Scotch Plains net-minder, who deflected it to junior Dennis Kachintsev, who found an opening and put the rebound in for the score. It was the junior’s first tally of the season and it was all Millburn would need as the defense went to work.
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“Once I saw James lining up for the shot, I just went,” Kachintsev said. “I just knew that the goalie wasn’t really confident, it was a slick field, the ball was new, anything can happen there. You just have to follow that up.”
“We have three out of our four defenders who last year were on the state championship team,” said Millburn head coach Rob Grosso. “So the experience of being able to play in playoffs and state tournament stuff really pays off. I think that experience is what’s making the difference for us.”
It’s not as if the Scotch Plains boys didn’t have any chances. They just didn’t have any really good ones. They outshot Millburn, 9-8, but five saves from Millburn’s Corbin Stevens and a superb defensive effort from Jeff Wang, Chris Benedict, Tony Miller and Max Okinow made the difference.
There were three yellow cards issued in the second half, but aside from that there was not much action inside either teams' goal box. Each team made a few runs, but either a bad kick, a faulty pass or a defender’s foot spoiled any good scoring chances.
Millburn continues its defense of the Group 3 championship, moving on to play against 19-4 Montville at Indian Hills High School on Tuesday. Millburn is 14-5-2.
