As coaches with the Harrison boys soccer program for more than two decades, head coach Mike Rusek Jr. and his brother/assistant coach John know more than anyone that sectional and state titles are expected every year.
But even with that standard, excuse them for perhaps being a little surprised that this year’s Blue Tide team has added to the decades long championship pedigree. The latest Harrison boys soccer title came on Friday night as the Blue Tide defeated Hackettstown, 1-0, in the NJSIAA North 2, Group 2 final in Harrison.
It is the second sectional title in three years for Harrison and the 13th in the 25 seasons Rusek Jr. has been head coach.
Harrison (18-5-2) will host North 1, Group 2 champion Glen Rock (16-3-2) in the Group 2 semifinals on Tuesday at 5 p.m. at Harrison High School. Tuesday’s winner will play for the overall Group 2 championship on Sunday at Franklin High School.
“This one is especially meaningful because September and October were full of ups and downs with this team,” Rusek said. “The previous two years, we were really confident with the group of returning players that we had. In 2022, we had a really strong group of juniors and seniors. And then last year, 2023, we had still a strong group of returning players from that previous year. But for the most part, this group of players that we’ve had played a lot of time on JV or they were coming in off the bench with us.”
One of those first year starters for Harrison (18-5-2) has been Frank Barrera, who missed all of last year due to a broken clavicle.
Barrera, a senior forward, scored his fifth goal of the state tournament when he headed in a Christopher Pereira corner kick in the 29th minute of the final. Four of Barrera’s goals this postseason have come off of restarts or crosses into the box from Pereira.
“(Christopher’s) got a natural left footed swing, and actually, he went over to the right side to take that corner,” said Rusek.,”Usually you have a right footed player take the corner and the ball kind of swings out. But I think Frank prefers Chris taking it as a lefty. It kind of swings in towards the goal. That ball was curving inwards and Frank just really advanced it with that header. He was up high, he hit it perfectly. And I don’t even think the goalie knew it went in until he turned and it was in the back of the net. It was just almost a professional type of goal.”
Francisco Appolo made 10 saves to earn the shutout for Harrison, the team’s second of the postseason.
The Pereira to Barrera connection has been a constant during this state tournament, as well as first half leads that Harrison has been able to protect.
After convincing early round wins over Mendham and Lyndhurst, Harrison had to go on the road on Tuesday to Madison for the semifinals. While the Blue Tide have largely struggled away from home this season, this time saw Harrison jump out to a quick 2-0 lead with first half goals by Barrera and Angello Tenazoa, taking advantage of having the wind at their backs for the start of the 2-1 victory.
“We said to them at the start of that game, let’s make Madison pay (for wanting to be against the wind in the first half) on that. Let’s get a goal or two early and see how they can adjust in the second half,” Rusek said. “We didn’t want to be in zero zero going against the wind. So we were fortunate enough that we had a two zero with them having to try to build up from there.”
Every other game in the state tournament has been at home for Harrison, where it has dominated, going 12-0-2.
Friday night saw the Blue Tide add to its championship legacy, but as Rusek was reminded after by some of his former players and longtime supporters of the program, Harrison’s legacy is one of state championships. So there is still more work left to go in order to reach its ultimate goal of a 26th state title.
“I know for how excited I was on Friday, some of the guys, some of the alumni, some of the coaches that we have with us, they were shrugging their shoulders like, okay, we still got two more to go,” Rusek said with a bit of a laugh. “I think for me and John, and I guess my father (Mickey, a volunteer assistant), this has been an unexpected surprise with this group. We’ve had a dream run so far, but there’s guys around me in Harrison that are like, okay, we used to the sectional championship. Now these are the two biggest games. So I gotta get myself back to that mindset where we’re like, okay, we’re not happy with this. We still have two more victories that we need to pull off.”
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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.)