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Sports

SPF Girls' Soccer Earns Top Spot in County Tournament

The team will receive a bye into the quarterfinals.

Just as expected, Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School earned the top seed for the 30th annual Union County Girls' Soccer Tournament. The event was seeded Monday night at Union Catholic High School.

Committee members included head coaches Kevin Ewing of Scotch Plains, Mario Kawczynski of Rahway, Eric Shaw of Union, Martyn Rushmore of Oak Knoll and Jim Revel of Union Catholic. Revel also served as the chairman.

Like the boys' soccer UCT is doing this year, the first four seeds receive byes into the quarterfinals.

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The top four seeds are 1-Scotch Plains, 2-Westfield, 3-Johnson and 4-New Providence. Three of those four teams reached the semifinals last year. Johnson was defeated at Scotch Plains 1-0 in a quarterfinal.

Scotch Plains earned the top seed by virtue of an overall 8-1-2 record and a 7-1-1 first-place mark in the Watchung Division of the Union County Conference.

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The Raiders beat Westfield 2-1 on the road, Gov. Livingston 3-0 at home and Johnson 5-0 at home in a six-day span to increase a season-long winning streak to five.

Scotch Plains will next host Union on Tuesday, Oct. 19, at 4 p.m. in conference play. Union is the only team that has defeated the Raiders so far. The Farmers edged Scotch Plains 1-0 in Union on Sept. 28.

"It's going to take a lot of team work and a lot of passion to win the title," Scotch Plains senior goalkeeper Paige DellaBadia said. "We have that. It's going to take hard work in practice every single day. We can't slack off."

Scotch Plains head coach Kevin Ewing, in his ninth year at the helm, has led the Raiders to the last five championship games. Scotch Plains won its first four crowns from 2005-2008 before falling to Cranford 1-0 in last year's title contest.

"You have to play everybody and beat everybody, so the seeding doesn't matter too much," Ewing said. "There's eight or nine teams in the county that can win the county tournament. There's not one or two top teams. There's eight or nine, I think, so we'll see what happens."

Scotch Plains is led by midfielder and Johns Hopkins-bound senior Emily Nagourney. "We've been to the county finals ever since I was on the team and even two years before that, so it's always one of our main goals of the season and what we work for most of the season – that and the state tournament," Nagourney said. "The county tournament is going to be tough because there are a lot of good teams in the county this year."

Ewing said he was pleasantly surprised by how strongly his team started the season. Many talented players returned, such as DellaBadia, Nagourney, junior midfielder Sarah Vanbuskirk and senior forward Avika Shah. But newcomers have made an impact as well.

"Our young kids have really stepped up and that's what we were hoping for," Ewing said.

Union earned the sixth seed with a record of 5-8 that includes four 1-0 losses. However, the Farmers own wins over three of the top four seeds.

Union beat New Providence 3-2 at home on Sept. 20, with sophomore defender Brittany Boland, junior midfielder Nicole Rodrigues and sophomore forward Nicole Bashford scoring. Union shut out Scotch Plains 1-0 at home on Sept. 28, with Bashford scoring on a corner kick in the first half. Union also blanked Johnson 1-0 at home on Oct. 8, with Rodrigues scoring in the first half.

Junior goalkeeper Anna Bandly earned the shutouts against Scotch Plains and Johnson. She has four shutouts going into Union's match at Scotch Plains this Tuesday.

How was Union able to beat Scotch Plains?

"We did well in the back defending them," Union head coach Eric Shaw, now in his fifth year, said. "They had chances, but many of them were from beyond the 18. We want them to shoot from a distance and try to beat us from the outside."

New Providence leads the UCC's Mountain Division and began the week with an 11-1 overall record. Brearley leads the UCC's Valley Division and began the week at 12-2 overall.

Union is one of seven situated in the UCC's upper Watchung Division. "I think we got seeded where we did because the coaches respected who we've played," Shaw said. "We have a good, quality team this year. We haven't figured it out up top, but we're pretty solid everywhere else."

Brearley is having one of its best seasons, yet the Bears were seeded three spots lower than Union, despite having more than twice as many wins as the Farmers. The reason for that, basically, is competition.

"Brearley, unfortunately, is in the lower division in terms of who they play," Shaw said. "They can't do much about that in terms of scheduling."

Union is playing conference teams such as Scotch Plains, Westfield, Summit, Johnson, Cranford and Gov. Livingston. Brearley played only one of those teams in a non-conference game, but was respectable in a 2-1 setback at Summit. Brearley's other loss is a 1-0 home defeat to New Providence.

The four preliminary round games must be completed by Thursday, Oct. 21. Four first round games are scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 23 and four second round games for Tuesday, Oct. 26. All of those matches will be played at the higher seeds.

The quarterfinals, also at the higher seeds, are scheduled for Oct. 28.

The semifinals are scheduled to be played at Johnson in Clark on Oct. 30 at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m., according to the UCIAC website.

It was announced at Monday night's seeding meeting that the championship game will be played at Kean University in Union on Nov. 7 at 3 p.m.

 

NOTES: The higher-seeded teams play at home and will wear light colored jerseys and supply three game balls.

Overtime will consist of two 10-minute sudden death periods (golden goal). If the game is still tied, teams will proceed to a penalty kick shootout, with NJSIAA rules governing.

If the championship game is still tied, there will be no penalty kick shootout and co-champions will be declared. There have been co-champions twice, with Scotch Plains and Westfield tying 1-1 in 2006 and Westfield and Oak Knoll tying 0-0 in 2002.

30th ANNUAL UNION COUNTY GIRLS' SOCCER TOURNAMENT SEEDING:

1-Scotch Plains-Fanwood. 2-Westfield. 3-Johnson. 4-New Providence. 5-Summit. 6-Union. 7-Oak Knoll. 8-Gov. Livingston. 9-Brearley. 10-Union Catholic. 11-Cranford. 12-Kent Place. 13-Rahway. 14-Roselle Catholic. 15-Dayton. 16-Linden. 17-Roselle Park. 18-Elizabeth. 19-Plainfield. 20-Hillside.

PRELIMINARY ROUND:

On or before Thursday, Oct. 21

Check home teams for game times.

20-Hillside at 13-Rahway

17-Roselle Park at 16-Linden

19-Plainfield at 14-Roselle Catholic

18-Elizabeth at 15-Dayton

FIRST ROUND:

Saturday, Oct. 23

Check home teams for game times.

Roselle Park/Linden at 9-Brearley

Hillside/Rahway at 12-Kent Place

Plainfield/Roselle Catholic at 11-Cranford

Elizabeth/Dayton at 10-Union Catholic

SECOND ROUND:

Tuesday, Oct. 26

Check home teams for game times.

TOP SIDE OF THE BRACKET:

Hillside/Rahway/Kent Place at 5-Summit

Roselle Park/Linden/Brearley at 8-Gov. Livingston

BOTTOM SIDE OF THE BRACKET:

Plainfield/Roselle Catholic/Cranford at 6-Union

Elizabeth/Dayton/Union Catholic at 7-Oak Knoll

QUARTERFINALS:

Thursday, Oct. 28

Check home teams for game times.

TOP SIDE OF THE BRACKET:

Hillside/Rahway/Kent Place/Brearley at 4-New Providence

Roselle Park/Linden/Brearley/GL at 1-Scotch Plains

BOTTOM SIDE OF THE BRACKET:

Plainfield/Roselle Catholic/Cranford/Union at 3-Johnson

Elizabeth/Dayton/Union Catholic/Oak Knoll at 2-Westfield

 

SEMIFINALS:

Saturday, Oct. 30

At Johnson in Clark.

5:30 and 7:30 p.m.

FINAL:

Sunday, Nov. 7

At Kean University in Union.

Semifinal winners, 3 p.m.

UCT CHAMPIONSHIP SCORES SINCE 1997:

 

2009: Cranford 1, Scotch Plains 0

2008: Scotch Plains 3, Johnson 0

2007: Scotch Plains 1, Westfield 0

2006: Scotch Plains 1, Westfield 1 – co-champs

2005: Scotch Plains 1, Oak Knoll 0 – SP's first title

2004: Gov. Livingston 1, Cranford 0 – GL's first title

2003: Oak Knoll 5, Gov. Livingston 0

2002: Westfield 0, Oak Knoll 0 – co-champs, Oak Knoll's first title

2001: Westfield 2, New Providence 0

2000: Cranford 3, Union Catholic 1 – Cranford's first title

1999: Union Catholic 4, Cranford 1

1998: Union Catholic 1, Cranford 0

1997: Union Catholic 2, Scotch Plains 0

Westfield won every year from 1981-1992 – its first 12 titles - and from 1994-1996 – its next three. The Blue Devils have won 18 titles total, including 16 outright and their last two shared.

Union Catholic won the first of its four titles in 1993.

Westfield defeated Johnson 2-1 in the 1994 final.

 

CHAMPIONSHIPS WON:

Westfield: 18, 2 of them shared.

Union Catholic: 4.

Scotch Plains: 4, 1 of them shared.

Cranford: 2.

Oak Knoll: 2, 1 of them shared.

Gov. Livingston: 1.

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