There may come a time when the Kearny boys and girls soccer teams will look more fondly about getting to play at Red Bull Arena and being treated just like professional teams before and after the match.
And by the time this issue runs to print, the focus will almost assuredly have shifted towards the goals that still await with the state tournament that starts next week.
However, those were the last things on their mind as they left Red Bull Arena on Thursday night. Visions of winning county championships at the state’s biggest soccer venue had been dashed just moments earlier.
Instead of celebrating in front of the crowd of more than 2,000 people, there were no celebrations in Kearny as both the boys and girls teams were denied in the Hudson County Tournament finals.
First, the girls saw their 15-year reign as county champions end with a 3-1 loss to Bayonne. Then, the boys were denied their third title in four years as rival St. Peter’s Prep rallied for a 3-1 victory over the Kardinals.
“There’s not a kid in the world right now in that locker room that wants to hear any of that (other stuff),” Kearny boys head coach Scott Millar said on Thursday night. “The reality right now is that, yeah, this a great moment to come down here, but at the end of the day, we’re going home disappointed.. We’re going home disappointed because we know that we were good enough to win tonight.”
Millar’s group started off fast when Jeckson Rivera took a one-touch from Gabe Gomez inside the box and fired a shot past St. Peter’s Prep keeper Anthony Novello gave the Kardinals a 1-0 lead just 4:11 into the game.
The lead lasted through the first half, 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.
“I think we were pretty comfortable at halftime (despite being down 1-0),” St. Peter’s Prep head coach Josh Jantas said. “We said to each other, ‘Hey, we need to score if we’re going to win this game anyway.’ So we’re like, well, let’s get one and kind of see where it goes from there.”
Christian Pereira Velazquez pushed the lead to 3-1 in the 69th minute and Novello slammed the door shut on the Kardinals late. The junior keeper stopped a Kearny penalty kick in the 73rd minute, then in the 75th minute made a pair of saves as part of an offensive flurry that the Kardinals were unable to score on.
“All you can ask is for the boys to put themselves into a position to come back,” said Millar. “At the end of the day, we got a disappointed group because we didn’t take advantage of our chances and they did. As cruel as it can be, sometimes that’s the game.”
A couple hours earlier, one of the area’s great streaks came to an end when the Kearny girls were on the receiving end of a sudden one-two strike.
Bayonne’s Kylie Galano broke a scoreless tie with a goal in the 14th minute. Then, just 54 seconds later, Galano sent an over the top pass to Jenna Gaetani, giving the Bees a 2-0 lead.
For many years during this one-sided rivalry, it was Kearny, who would strike early to seize the lead and all momentum.
“It was awesome. It really took our emotions even higher,” Bayonne head coach Victor Pesantez said. “You never want to go into the half with a 2-0 lead, but we came out and played hard. Kearny made some switches and we scored another goal on them.”
Galano added an insurance goal in the 54th minute for the Bees.
Kearny got on the scoreboard in the 78th minute with a goal by Keala Cicchino, her seventh of the Hudson County Tournament, but it proved too little, too late to stop Bayonne from celebrating an elusive county crown.
During the Kardinals’ streak of 14 consecutive Hudson County Tournament titles, 11 of them were over Bayonne in the final. It is believed to be Bayonne’s first win over Kearny since 1991.
“Kearny’s always been our rivals in the county,” said Pesantez. “With our independent schedule, we matched up to play some better teams to match up to (Kearny’s) competition.”
Both Kearny teams have one last game currently scheduled before the state tournament, which begins on Nov. 4 as the boys hosted Dickinson on Oct. 28 and the girls on Wednesday, welcome a Waldwick team coached by Kardinals legend and former head coach Stefanee Kivlehan.
Learn more about the writer ...
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.)