Playing in the Bergen Invitational Tournament likely wasn’t one of the goals for either the Lyndhurst or North Arlington boys soccer teams heading into the season. But when both local squads found themselves in the tournament field rather than the traditional Bergen County Tournament, there was an added motivation to use the BIT to show they belong in the conversation among the better teams in the county.
Both teams emerged through four rounds of tournament play to reach BIT final and on Saturday afternoon, the two rivals left Indian Hills High School as BIT co-champions after playing to a 1-1 draw.
While each team surely would have preferred an outright championship, it was in the eyes of the coaches an appropriate ending to the third matchup of the year between the two rivals.
“Honestly, we always would love to win, but I’m happy,” said Lyndhurst head coach Emad Abu-Hakmeh. “Both teams played really well and I’m happy that that game ended the way it did because neither team deserved to lose (Saturday) night. And both teams put heart and effort and they give it a hundred percent. Every single player on both teams.”
“The result was a 1-1 tie, and it really could have gone either way,” North Arlington head coach Pedro Martinez said. “It was a very exciting and entertaining game filled with loads of opportunities for both teams.”
North Arlington, which won the two regular season matchups, struck first once again on Saturday when, in the 34th minute, Patrick Sullivan gathered a rebound in front of the net and scored to give the Vikings the lead.
Lyndhurst answered back in the 65th minute when Robert Dasler Jr. scored off a feed from Cristian Porras to tie the game.
It was just the last clutch moment from one of North Jersey’s top strikers as Dasler Jr. has now scored a goal in seven consecutive games and tallied seven goals in the BIT.
Jakob Gwisczc made 13 saves for North Arlington and Maksym Dmochowski had six for Lyndhurst as ultimately, neither team was able to add another goal in regulation or overtime.
“We had our chances, they had their chances,” said Abu-Hakmed. “Our goalie came up big a couple of times, we hit the bar on the ball a few times and they had a couple of chances too. It was a well balanced, well fought game from the first second to the last second.”
With an 8-5 record at the time the tournaments were seeded, Abu-Hakmed’s team felt they were snubbed when they were not one of the 24 teams selected for the Bergen County Tournament. Instead, the Bears were the first team selected for the BIT as the ninth seed as the top eight go to the teams that lose in the first round of the Bergen County Tournament.
After shutting out Northern Highlands in the first round, Lyndhurst got to show why it belonged when it defeated Leonia, who got the final Bergen County Tournament spot, in the second round ,3-0, then defeated another BCT qualifier in Cliffside Park in the quarterfinals, 6-2. Lyndhurst shut out Bergenfield in the semifinals.
“Unfortunately we didn’t get the seeds that we deserved and it was proved throughout,” said Abu-Hakmed, noting the wins over two teams that made the Bergen County Tournament field. “(Playing this well in the BIT) was really, really a good thing for us and for our kids in the program.”
North Arlington knew it wasn’t going to be in the main Bergen County Tournament due to a 2-7 start. But despite the disappointment of not qualifying like they wanted to back before the season, the Vikings caught fire in the beginning of October and continued it into the BIT as it defeated three BCT qualifiers on its way to the final.
After defeating Pascack Hills in the first round, North Arlington beat BCT qualifiers Pascack Valley, Elmwood Park and then Demarest, all on the road, to reach the final.
“Things don’t go your way all the time,” said Martinez of the start that eliminated North Arlington’s chances of making the Bergen County Tournament. “We saw ourselves being invited to the Bergen Invitational Tournament and I think we took full advantage of it. We said to ourselves, Hey, this is a tournament nevertheless, and we have an opportunity to play for a championship. And I think the boys really took to that and really showed what kind of players and athletes they are.
“Having competed against three teams that were invited to the county tournament and advancing past them shows what kind of effort, what kind of team we actually have.”
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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.)