The Kearny High School soccer teams and their supporters came out in full force to Red Bull Arena with hopes of celebrating two more Hudson County championships.
Instead, they left the state’s premier soccer venue with feelings of disappointment and sadness as both the Kardinals boys and girls teams lost on Thursday in their respective Hudson County Tournament finals.
The first match of the double-header saw the Kearny girls’ incredible 15-year reign as county champs come to an end with a 3-1 loss against Bayonne.
Kylie Galano struck first with a goal in the 14th minute for Bayonne. Then, just 54 seconds later, Galano sent an over the top pass to Jenna Gaetani to give the Bees a 2-0 lead.
Galano added an insurance goal in the 54th minute for Bayonne, which had been the runner-up in the tournament to Kearny 11 times prior.
Keala Cicchino put the Kardinals on the scoreboard with a goal in the 78th minute, but it proved too little, too late to stop Bayonne from celebrating what had been an elusive county crown.
The boys final ended in similar disappointment as St. Peter’s Prep won 3-1 to repeat as Hudson County champs and deny the Kardinals a third title in four years.
Kearny led 1-0 at halftime, but St. Peter’s Prep came out of the intermission and scored three unanswered goals. Anthony Bautista scored the tying goal in the 47th minute off a turnover, then proceeded to deliver the game-winner in the 54th minute for the Marauders.
Christian Pereira Velazquez pushed the lead to 3-1 in the 69th minute and Prep goalkeeper Anthony Novello slammed the door shut on the Kardinals with multiple highlight worthy saves late including a stop on a Kearny penalty kick in the 73rd minute.
Jeckson Rivera gave Kearny a 1-0 lead just 4:11 into the game when he took a one-touch from Gabe Gomez inside the box and fired a shot past Novello for the opening goal.
Both teams will have more than a week before the start of the state tournament in November.
Please check out next week’s Observer for full coverage from both championship matches.
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Jason Bernstein | Observer Sports Writer
Jason Bernstein joined The Observer as its sports writer in March 2022, following the retirement of Jim Hague. He has a wealth of sports-writing experience, including for NJ Advance Media (nj.com, The Jersey Journal, The Star-Ledger.)