WEST CALDWELL- In the midst of a very challenging season against some top-flight competition in and out of the Waterman Division or Super Essex Conference, Caldwell has continued to strive to play four strong quarters, which hasn’t happened very often.
Still, despite losing five games by one goal this spring - including 8-7 to Livingston in the semifinals of the Essex County Tournament - the Chiefs have persevered and proved to be too big an obstacle for Voorhees in the first round of the NJSIAA South, Group 1 state tournament, finishing strong for an 8-6 victory on Thursday afternoon at Bonnel Field.
Senior Stevens Tech-bound attackman Jordan Gruzas scored four goals to increase his team-leading season total to 46 and had an assist to add to his team-best 34, while junior midfielder Logan Mooney added two goals to back strong defense and excellent rides from all the Chiefs to limit the Voorhees attackmen when it mattered most to allow seventh-seeded Caldwell (9-12) to move on to the next round in what is a very tough state tourney bracket.
The Chiefs will next travel to meet second-seeded Haddonfield on Monday in one of the sectional quarterfinals.
Despite falling behind 2-0 in the game’s first four minutes vs. 10th-seeded Voorhees (14-6), Caldwell had the better of play for much of the final three quarters while receiving strong goal tending from Jacob Natt (11 saves) and stellar defense from other veteran seniors including Adelphi-bound Ryan Healey to move past the pesky Vikings.
Gruzas gave the Chiefs the lead for good at 5-4 with his fourth goal of the game which came with 8:42 left in the third quarter as he helped his team convert after causing back-to-back turnovers.
Sophomore Ryder Weintraub (1 goal, 1 assist) then extended the Caldwell lead to 6-4 with 2:34 left in the third, and despite a man-up goal by Voorhees’ impressive attackman Josh Hufford, his third of the game and 67th of the season, with one second left in the quarter, the Chiefs weren’t about to let up.
Mooney scored his second goal of the contest to make it 7-5 for some insurance with 8:32 left in the fourth quarter, which was needed as the Vikings’ Dustin Moke scored off a feed from Leo Herrera just over a minute later to pull his team to within a goal one more time at 7-6.
Caldwell would prove to seal the deal when sophomore faceoff man Anthony Grosso scored just his second goal of the season – and a big one - as he scooped up the ball after the faceoff and bolted toward the net before firing home the ball past Vikings goalie Ryan Rathbun with 7:01 left.
With Natt continuing to come up with key saves and close defense holding strong to keep Hufford or the Vikings’ assist maven Benny Kim from doing any more damage, the Chiefs had their state tourney victory while surviving and advancing.
“We’re happy with the way we finished the game,” said Caldwell second-year head coach Nick Esposito. “We’ve been all over the place this year when it comes to that and we haven’t played well for all four quarters much this year.
“Even today we really only played three solid quarters and they took us to the brink once again. Hats off to Voorhees because they played us super-tough like they also played us tough last year (7-6 Chiefs win in the South, Group 1 sectional semifinals).
“Fortunately, our ride was good today and our experienced defense locked in. We have a very senior defense, Jacob Natt is an anchor in the back and Ryan Healey, who was out of school all week with the flu, was able to come back and help us out there in a big way today.
