NV-Old Tappan Golden Knights defeat Cliffside Park 7-1

After a scoreless 1st half where the NV-Old Tappan Golden Knights(14-3-2) had several scoring chances but missed Head Coach Tom Quinn said it was all about making adjustments at halftime. They certainly paid off as the Golden Knights erupted for seven 2^nd half goals en route to a 7-1 victory over the Cliffside Park Red Raiders(9-8-1) in the opening round of the NJSIAA North 1, Group 3 tournament.

With 29:24 left in the 2^nd half, a mad scramble ensued inside of the Red Raiders box led to Taylor Newman scooping up the loose ball and chipping a shot into the open net giving Old Tappan the lead 1-0. On the play Cliffside Park goalkeeper Nina Gonzalez remained down on the field bloodied in the face and forced to leave the game. A lengthy delay occurred as the grounds crew attempted to clean up blood from the field. Nicole Cardona replaced Gonzalez in net.

The Green Knights wasted no time getting to Cardona as 58 seconds later Amanda Tripodi volleyed a pass from the far right sideline of the field to leading scorer Kelly Walsh who took the pass and unleashed a blast shot that ricocheted off top of the crossbar and across the goal line. Old Tappan kept the pressure going a minute and twenty-five later as Walsh tacked on her 2^nd goal of the match breaking in with Cardona coming out to challenge the play but Walsh lifted a high arching shot that bounced into the wide open net making 3-0.

“We didn’t have the best start but picked up the intensity and worked as a team in the 2^nd half” said Kelly Walsh. “Taylor set the bar and after that we kept shooting and getting opportunities,” added Walsh. “We had more focus in the 2^nd half and instead of kicking the ball everywhere worked on our possession”

Old Tappan kept the intensity up with Izzy Ramil getting into scoring column with 25:21 lifting a high riser over Cardona into the net increasing the margin to 4-0. However, the Red Raiders did get on the scoreboard at the 20-minute mark as Kathleen Silva fed a pass to Seray Kurtis who broke into the box and slid a shot to the left of Green Knights goalkeeper Jada Usal trimming the lead to 4-1.

“We played tough in the 1^st half and kept it scoreless which we wanted to do” said Cliffside Park Head Coach Carmine Camberari. “We had a call that could have gone either way plus our gets hurt,” added Camberari. “Blood is everywhere and refs should have stopped the game but they didn’t and Old Tappan capitalized on it” “We had a chance with the missed call with a handball in the box but refs didn’t call it and could have stopped their momentum” “After that the floodgates opened up”

Two minutes later a poor clearing attempt by Cardona led to Francesca launching a shot into the net boosting the lead to 5-1. Amanda Tripodi added a goal with twelve minutes to go and Julia Lee closed out the scoring on a 4 and 0 breakaway drilling a shot past Cardona into the net.

“We got it going with the first goal which was important,” said Tom Quinn. “We’re a balanced and veteran team with a lot of nice players,” added Quinn. “Cliffside Park had a nice offside trap and we’re a very tough opponent”

Next up for the Old Tappan Green Knight in the second round of the NJSIAA North 1, Group 3 tournament is Fair Lawn(14-6) on Thursday November 5th at 1:00 p.m.