By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
HAMMONTON — When boys soccer teams like Hammonton and Egg Harbor Township — perennial Cape-Atlantic League and state playoff contenders — get together, you can count on a few things: it’s going to be a physical game and it’s probably going to be a one-goal game.
That was certainly the case on Tuesday as the host Blue Devils scored just one goal, but that was all they needed to get a 1-0 win over a scrappy Eagles team.
“This game always gets chippy on the field but we know we’re all high schoolers and we’re all friends, but yeah, it’s definitely a great rivalry between two great schools,” said Hammonton senior Isaac Fishman, who scored the game’s lone tally.
That goal came in the 53rd minute and was set up by a run down the middle by fellow senior Jaxon Miller. He dribbled through some defense before dishing the ball off to Fishman on the right, forcing EHT goalie Jack Carroll to make a decision. Carroll came out and tried to cut off the angle to the far post, and Fishman took a touch and tucked a shot neatly inside the near post for a 1-0 Hammonton lead.
“What I always do when I’m going to goal is wait and jockey to see if (the goalie) is going to make a move. I saw him make a move to my left so I went near post and it went in,” Fishman explained. “I’ve played against that goalie a few times and I know he likes to be patient, so I was patient and was able to put it into the back of the net.”
“I knew Fish had it in him. I just took a quick couple of touches and played it in to him. I was calling for it at the top, but I knew Fish had it, and he scored,” Miller said. “This was a huge win today. We rely on our defense pretty heavily, so to get one in and go up 1-0 was huge. We ride our defense to the end of the game and we win or lose as a team. That all starts with our defense.”
“We knew it was going to be a battle all the way through. We just expected our guys to do their jobs. On the defensive side we had to contain as much as possible because they have some dangerous guys up top, and that’s exactly what our back line did. And our outside midfielders worked their tails off — everything we asked them to do, they did for us. We’re excited as we continue with this season because we keep getting a little bit better every game,” said Hammonton coach Steve Adirzone. “It was nice to get that goal in. I thought we had good possession. They had a big push in the first 10 or 15 minutes, but I felt like we settled in, possessed through the middle, got the ball out wide and were able to attack from wide to inside and that’s when we started to get our chances. We work on that every single day in practice. They were getting (the concepts) early in the year but it wasn’t consistent. Now we see much more of it over the course of 80 minutes, where in the beginning of the season it was more spotty.”
Hammonton (5-3-2, 4-3-1 Cape-Atlantic League American) had a couple of good chances in the first half but came up empty on a header off a corner kick and shot high on a direct kick from about 30 yards out about eight minutes before halftime. EHT (4-7, 3-5 CAL American) didn’t have many scoring opportunities as Blue Devils goalie Harrison Kiss was only forced to make a few saves. The Devils had a few more solid chances in the second half but shots went just wide.
A big reason for the sustained chances was Miller, who had a strong game in the middle of the field.
“He’s a strong guy and he’s able to take on defenders one-on-one and use his body to hold the ball and wait for his teammates to get open,” Fishman said. “He found me on a good ball and I was able to put it into the net. (Having a guy like him in the middle) is extremely important because it tires the defense out and puts a lot of pressure on them, and that opens up a lot of opportunities.”
“He is one of those guys who the ball just sticks to his foot. He can go up against two or three guys and somehow he comes out with the ball,” Adirzone said. “He uses his body like nobody I’ve coached before, and he can finish. He’s the full package. He can run for 80 minutes, he just doesn’t get tired. I’m happy for him, he’s scoring some huge goals for us and had a huge assist today. He’s a captain, and we knew coming into the season we were going to rely heavily on him.”
The win gives Hammonton a little bit of momentum heading into Thursday’s game at St. Augustine Prep, the top team in the Cape-Atlantic League. The Blue Devils are 4-1-1 in their last six games.
“We’re just going to ride this energy into Thursday and see what we can do against Prep,” Miller said. “We just have to stay together and play our game. We have a good group of guys and a lot of depth, and if we just play as a team I think we have a good shot to go pretty far this season.”
“This gives us a lot of momentum, especially with probably the toughest opponent we’ll face all year (St. Augustine Prep) on Thursday. We just have to keep this momentum going into practice (Wednesday) and keep the energy up going into Thursday,” Fishman said. “We have come a long way since the beginning of the year, especially with our conditioning. I think that’s been a big part, and we just need to keep growing as a team. There’s always room for improvement.”
Added Adirzone, “we know going into Thursday is going to be difficult, but we knew going into today it was going to be a toss-up. We knew one mistake here or there was going to make the difference in this game, and if we can play — to some extent — to the level we played today, we can give anybody a run for their money.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Hammonton travels to St. Augustine Prep on Thursday at 4 p.m. Egg Harbor Township travels to St. Augustine Prep on Saturday at 10 a.m.
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sullyglorydays@gmail.com
