After losing in the Group 2 state finals last year to Hackettstown, it goes without a doubt that there were high expectations placed on the Cinnaminson boy’s soccer team coming into the season. This is something Coach Meile knew entering the pre-season. He did notice that a difference from last year is the “overall experience,” of the team.

With ten seniors, but only three returning varsity starters, it was unsure what to make of this team. One of those returning starters is last year’s leading goal scorer (with a total of 17 goals), Pat McCarthy.

McCarthy and fellow senior Mason Steponowski are currently tied for leading goal-scorer fpr this year’s team with eight goals each.

McCarthy attributes his success to, “my teammates, good coaching, and overall hard work.”  Another senior who has stepped up into a much larger role this year is Mike Reid. Coach Meile comments on Reid’s successful climb by stating that, “He started off the season coming off the bench and playing maybe a third of the game, maybe half the game, to a guy who for the past 2 weeks has been playing all 80 minutes.”

The Pirates had a 8-7-3 record going into the playoffs.  After winning the first two rounds, they stand at 10-7-2 heading into this afternoon’s game at Manasquan. To have a repeat of last year, Coach Meile says, “The team has to continue to work together and kind of come even closer together. There’s times throughout the season where guys have been frustrated with one another and been frustrated with me, but it’s one of those things where the more we realize our actions impact everybody and that we need to pick each other up when someone is literally or figuratively knocked down.”

Cinnaminson comes into the South Jersey Group II tournament as a seventh seed and faced tenth-seeded, Pinelands, in the first round at home. Going into the game, Meile said, “Pinelands sounds like a very similar team to us.”

The first-round game was an incredibly close game with the Pirates getting goals from junior Ryan Mahaffy and senior C.J. Zimmer, but the Pineys were able to even the score after a 2-1 CHS halftime lead.  Specifically, the game was about to be over, but a foul was called in the box with 1.2 seconds left and Pinelands scored to tie the game.  After a scoreless overtime period, CHS put their first four shots into the net and junior keeper Mike Deal stopped one during the shootout. When the last shot went wide of the net for Pinelands and CHS converted on their fourth shot, it sealed the first round victory for the Pirates.  Overall, Deal blocked two of the possible five penalty kicks from Pinelands.

However, don’t get fooled by CHS.  This year’s team has looked great at times and not so much at others. They have tied 1-1 and taken the Liberty division winners RV into overtime only to lose 1-0. Other times they have looked far from the same after only beating teams like Pennsauken 2-1 in overtime.

It is hard to say how this year’s team will fare in the playoffs, but it’s clear that if they show up they can play with anybody. Last Friday, they traveled to face a very tough team with the second-seeded Middle Township.  Zimmer again scored in the second half and Mike Deal added six saves to preserve the fourth shutout of the season for the Pirates.

One defender who has specifically stood out is senior captain Sampson Abah. On being named a captain he says, “I feel like it’s a good test, I’m always motivated by the rest of the seniors because we all kind of share the same leadership role.”

Soccer is a two piece game: You need the offense and the defense and communication in-between. As the boys enter the playoffs, it seems that their formations are coming together quite nicely.

Today, the boys will travel to Manasquan who defeated third-seeded Point Pleasant Boro 2-1.  Manasquan plays in the difficult Shore Conference and enters the game with an 11-7-2 record.  On the other side of the bracket, if Delran continues to upset teams, after beating top-seeded Haddonfield, and topples fifth-seeded Sterling, CHS could host the South Sectional finale against Delran on Friday afternoon at 2 p.m.