SP-F Beats Morristown to Move on to Quarterfinals

Scotch Plains-Fanwood High’s boys’ soccer team suffered a heartbreaking loss late Saturday afternoon in the Union County Tournament semifinal – a 4-3 double-overtime penalty kick setback to rival Westfield.

The No. 2-seeded Raiders (17-2-1) were able to bounce back Tuesday afternoon with a commanding 3-0 win over No. 15 Morristown in the North 2 Group III playoffs in Scotch Plains. The Raiders will play No. 10 in a sectional quarterfinal Friday afternoon. Game time is 2 p.m. in Scotch Plains.

Senior Mike DelSordi got the Raiders going with a penalty kick in the first half and freshman Vincenzo Bianco scored off senior Zach Flanzmann’s assist. The Raiders led 2-0 at intermission and made it 3-0 in the second period on senior Brian Kahn’s goal. Junior Rory Szeto also had an assist during the game.

“That team (Morristown) wasn’t the greatest team, obviously, but we put that loss (Westfield) in our past already, the only thing that will make up for it is winning states, that and the conference," DelSordi said. “From the beginning we were pushing them and in the second half we kind of let it go. But we started out well."

“Losing to Westfield was very difficult; we were all looking forward to our senior year and going out with a county title," he added. “We didn’t play our greatest today, but it was good enough."

Bianco moved to goaltender when head coach Tom Breznitsky gave senior keeper Anthony Zukofsky the last 20 minutes of the game off. He’s been plagued with hip soreness.

“He did most of the work. I really had nothing to do because the defense blocked everything out," Bianco said. “They wanted to give him a rest because we were up 3-0. We all wanted to get back from that loss to Westfield."

Scotch Plains-Fanwood has won 12 sectional titles, the last in 2007 and seven state championships, the last in 1998. Last year, the Raiders went to the sectional final, but lost.