Boys soccer: EHT knocked out of Coaches Tournament with gut-wrenching loss to Washington Township

By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP — On Monday afternoon, the Egg Harbor Township boys soccer team got a preview of what state playoff soccer is going to look like when the Eagles took on five-time defending South Jersey Group 4 champion Washington Township in the quarterfinals of the South Jersey Coaches Association Tournament. The Eagles also got a sneak peak at what it might feel like if they aren’t able to achieve their ultimate goal of dethroning the Minutemen in the upcoming sectional tournament.
EHT fought back for 17 minutes from a 1-0 deficit, finally tying the game at 1 with 4:33 remaining when senior captain E.J. Martin knocked in a header off a corner kick, but then the rug was pulled out from under the Eagles as they were trying to push the game into overtime and capitalize on their newfound momentum. The Minutemen earned a throw-in near the left corner and a long toss by sophomore Matt Liss served almost as a corner kick. Senior Justin Bautista got a head on it with time winding under 20 seconds in regulation, sending the ball to the far side of the goal, and an EHT player inadvertently knocked it in while trying to clear, allowing Township to escape with a 2-1 victory.

“I don’t know if we’ve ever scored with about 10 seconds left in any game. We played a really good team and it was a great game back and forth. It’s not the first time that we’ve given up a late goal — Eastern got a late goal on us, Cherry Hill East got a late goal on us — unfortunately, we were thinking, ‘oh boy, here we go.’ But we had a great response and I’m proud of that,” said Washington Township coach Shane Snyder. “They scored with less than five minutes to go and had all the momentum, but when you have a throw-in with less than 20 seconds left you can throw everybody in the box. It was like a corner kick, our kid threw it really far then the scrum happens. I don’t know what happened, it looked like one of our guys headed it over the goalie and then there was a pile up. I don’t know what happened. Liss threw it in and it looked like Bautista flicked it on, then it was chaos, and the chaos went our way this time.”
“We knew Township was a very good team and that we’d have our hands full. I was proud of the way our guys played, they didn’t quit. We didn’t get a whole lot of calls go our way but we dug in, and to score a goal there late and have the momentum — to lose a game like that is unfortunate, they’re upset. But I told them that this is what the playoffs are like. Fortunately, this was not win-or-go-home, this a warm-up for what South Jersey Group 4 is going to be. We’ll learn from it and hopefully we’ll be better from playing this game, and moving forward hopefully we can make a run. That’s our goal,” EHT coach Pete Lambert said. “We said at the beginning of the year we wanted to make a run in the Cape-Atlantic League, possibly get invited to the Coaches Tournament — which we did and we got one victory — but our main goal is winning South Jersey. Today was a reality check of what it’s going to be like. I’m proud of our guys, they battled until the end. The ball didn’t bounce our way and an own goal is devastating, but we’ll learn from it.”
Both teams had several missed opportunities in the first half and the game was scoreless through 58 minutes before the Minutemen (11-6-1) broke through on a set piece. EHT (15-4) was whistled for a handball just outside the box and Township senior Ryan Cleary laced a shot from 19 yards out into the left side of the net to give the Minutemen a 1-0 lead. Moments earlier, EHT goalie Tyler Weller made a tremendous save, denying Liss on a breakaway, and GianLuca Lockhart’s shot off the rebound sailed just high. The Eagles finally responded with 4:33 remaining off a corner kick. Ahmad Brock went up for a header and ended up flicking it to the far side of the goal, where Martin used an acrobatic header of his own to find the back of the net and even the score.
Lambert said the 11th-seeded Minutemen — who advance to take on No. 2 Clearview, a 1-0 winner over No. 7 Shawnee — just seemed to want it more.

“Coming off the game we played Saturday against Moorestown Friends, I thought we played 100 times better in that game than we did today. We lacked a little bit of energy, a lot of ball watching, they were winning a lot of balls and you could tell (Township) wanted it more than we did,” he said. “We regrouped and tried to put a little bit more pressure on them, tried to win those 50-50 balls through the midfield, but they are a good team. They play a tough schedule all year and you could tell they wanted it just a little more today. We were hoping to get it into overtime and to try to get our wheels back on and get things rolling again. To lose with 10 seconds left hurt, for sure, but I thought Washington Township brought the energy today.”
Township, which has won three straight and five of its last seven, takes on a Clearview team that is 16-1-1, including 7-1 in October, and ranked No. 20 in the state by nj.com. The teams played on Sept. 28 at Washington Township, battling to a scoreless tie.
“This is fun because we had a chance to win our conference (recently) but lost in double overtime with two minutes left, so that was kind of a downer,” Snyder said. “We’ve battled this year. These guys are doing the best they can and now we’re starting to really play well as it’s getting later in the season. Hopefully that continues.”
What’s next: Washington Township plays Clearview in the SJCA Tournament semifinals on Wednesday, time TBA. EHT hosts Glassboro on Friday at 6:30 p.m.
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays