Verona High School’s boys soccer team went into the Essex County Tournament as the #11 seed off a rather straightforward blowout against Eagle Academy in the preliminaries. Its opponent in round 1 of the ECT was #6 seed Glen Ridge. But the game got moved from an afternoon contest in Glen Ridge to an evening match at Cedar Grove and, with an almost full moon as a backdrop, and something magical happened: The Hillbillies outscored the Ridgers 2-1.
Peter Caputo put Verona on the board first, with an assist from Max Handler. Fellow junior Graham Weber, who has been Verona’s dominant scorer this season, upped the ante to 2-0 just about three minutes from the end of the first half.
Glen Ridge returned to the pitch and at the 32:34 minute mark, Ian Heinicke finally got the Ridgers on the scoreboard. But Verona’s defense and five deft saves by Jerry Strippoli kept Glen Ridge from getting any further.
The win improves Verona’s record to 8-4 (6-4 in conference). The Hillbillies travel to Montclair on Saturday afternoon for round 2 of the ECT against #3 seed Montclair. The game has a 2 p.m. start.
