Jackson falls in SCT tourney
After beating RBR in quarters, boys get shut out by Manalapan
BY MIKE WHITE Staff Writer

ANDREW MILLER staff Jackson Memorial's Robert Lindstrom (l) and Manalapan's Chris DeFalco battle for a ball during the first half of their Shore Conference Tournament Boys Soccer semifinal game in Neptune last Thursday, which Manalapan won 5-0.

NEPTUNE - Entering its Shore Conference Tournament semifinal against Manalapan, the Jackson High School boys soccer team had allowed just seven goals. The Jaguars' defense had been outstanding all year, frustrating opponents by limiting the number of scoring opportunities.

So when Manalapan defeated Jackson 5-0 last Thursday to advance to the SCT championship game, the Jaguars were the ones who were left frustrated and shaking their heads.

"Hey, Manalapan is a very good team," Jackson coach Steve Bado said. "We knew it was going to be a very competitive game. We had scrimmaged them earlier in the preseason and played well against them. We were disappointed in the way we lost the game. We had a very rough first half."

Manalapan had a 1-0 lead when they erupted for a pair of goals in the final eight minutes of the first half to build what appeared to be an insurmountable 3-0 cushion.

"We didn't do a great job defensively," Bado said. "I knew that when they scored those two other goals at the end of the half, that mounting a comeback was going to take a lot. They are just too good a club to spot a three-goal lead to."

In the quarterfinals, Jackson narrowly survived against a scrappy Red Bank Regional team, relying on penalty kicks to advance to the quarterfinal round of the Shore Conference Tournament.

With the score knotted at 0-0 after 100 minutes of play, third-seeded Jackson got the better of the shootout, converting two penalty kicks while No. 14 Red Bank failed to register any against a stubborn Alex Morgans.

"He had a typical Alex Morgans game for us," Bado said. "He came up with the key stops when we needed him to. I was real confident going into the penalty kicks. I knew that Alex had been in these types of situations before. He is experienced and always seems to rise to the occasion."

Jackson netted its first two penalty kicks to take a 2-0 lead. It would be all the scoring the Jags would need. Cory Weismann knocked home the first penalty kick. That was followed by another score by Andrew Ventura.

"We got the first two, and I felt a little bit better about our situation," Bado said. "I knew that Morgans would be tough for them to score on. He is a real presence on the field."

Red Bank shot its first couple of attempts wide, but Morgans was called on to make a spectacular save later in the shootout. Morgans made a diving stab to knock away what would have been Red Bank's first goal.

"He somehow got an outstretched hand on it," Bado said. "It was a great save. He's been making stops like that since he first took the field for us."

In fact, it was Morgans who kept teammates focused during regulation.

"There were times out there when we might have been letting down a bit," Bado said. "But Alex is the kind of player who does what he has to in order to get everybody's intensity level back up. Our guys really came to life in the overtime sessions and during the shootout."