Taranto's Hat Trick Leads Ramapo Boys to Victory Over Fair Lawn

On a wet, rainy night in Franklin Lakes, Ramapo defeated Fair Lawn on the strength of four goals, three coming off the foot of sophomore Mike Taranto. 

The Raiders' 4-1 victory brought their record to 7-1 while Fair Lawn dropped to 4-5.

Taranto was the man of the match, creating offensive opportunities all game for the Raiders. Coach Evan Baumgarten credited Taranto's unselfishness as the major reason he was able to open himself up for scoring chances.

"One of the things that he's doing that's creating these opportunities is he's looking for others," said Baumgarten. "He's making others better by giving up balls, then when he's open he's more open."

When he found himself with space, Taranto was able to punish the Cutters; scoring early to give his team the momentum, then finishing them off late.

Taranto got Ramapo on the board quickly when he came up with the ball after a scramble in front of the net on a pass sent in from Tom Garrambone. Taranto easily deposited the ball into the back of the net for an early Raider lead.

Ramapo held the 1-0 lead as both teams continued to try and acclimate themselves to the wet ball.  As the rain continued falling, players struggled with their footing and playing the bounces the ball made off the slick turf.

Fair Lawn found it difficult to execute their game early on in the first half as their long balls continually skipped out of bounds.

"We like to spread it wide and then open up because we have guys on the outside that can really run," said coach Carlyle Myrie of Fair Lawn.  Their speed gave them the ability to create scoring chances in an instant, something they did well throughout the game.

Fair Lawn got their chances, but Ramapo had many more, keeping up a high-paced attack. They would strike again in the 20th minute—this time it was Garrambone capitalizing off a brilliant feed from Sean Ethridge. After Matt Deziel got the ball up to Ethridge on the right wing, he delivered a perfect cross to Garrambone to put the Raiders up two.

Ramapo kept up the pressure on the offensive end, but Fair Lawns' defense held strong on several occasions to keep the deficit at two.  

Trailing by two going into the second half, the Cutters were hungry to get back in the game. Antonio Matarazzo drew a gasp from the crowd after using his space to dribble down the center of the field then firing a hard shot that went just wide.  Fair Lawn kept the heat on the Raiders, but came up short after having a cross narrowly fly over the head of a crashing forward then having their attacker mishandle a cross right at his feet inside the box on back-to-back possessions.

Ramapo made them pay a few minutes later as Garrambone found Taranto after a great individual effort to free himself.  The duo's second hook-up of the match gave Ramapo a commanding 3-0 lead.

Fair Lawn, down but not out, salvaged a goal to crawl back into the game.  Matarazzo picked up a loose ball at the top of the box and cracked a shot into the back of the net.

With just more than seven minutes remaining in the contest, Taranto put an exclamation point on the match for the Raiders; netting his third goal to achieve the hat trick. After the final whistle was blown, Ramapo had itself a 4-1 victory.

Ramapo will take on Passaic Valley on Thursday, but before that they will find out the road they will take on the way to a county championship as the seedings are revealed on Wednesday. Baumgarten has a young team this year, but one that has looked sharp so far this season.

"We're learning every day," said Baumgarten.  "It's a good group, the kids play for each other. When you have that good things happen."