After a first half in which the Delbarton offense seemed to be stymied at every turn by Gill St. Bernard’s, sophomore Dylan Mazzarella made the most of his opportunity when it came knocking.
The sophomore midfielder rocketed a shot from about 20 yards out in the 54th minute to propel the Green Wave, ranked No. 1 in the NJ.com Top 20, to a 1-0, season-opening victory over the Knights, ranked No. 18, on Wednesday afternoon.
“I saw a little bit of an opening and I took a touch kind of inside with my left foot and I hit it,” Mazzarella said. “I saw that space and I was like, ‘Why not?’ It felt really good.”
Wednesday’s opener was the first time that Delbarton and Gill St. Bernard’s had met during the regular season since the early 1990s. According to Knights’ coach Tony Bednarsky, the two teams have scrimmaged during the preseason over the years, but being in two separate conferences and state sections, haven’t had the chance to meet during the regular season.
“We haven’t played a lot but I know (Delbarton coach) David (Donovan) from way back, we’re actually neighbors, he lives right around the corner from me,” Bednarsky said. “It’s nice, maybe we’ll make it an annual thing.”
Both teams are coming off relatively successful seasons last year. Delbarton won its 14th Morris County Tournament title and advanced to the North, Non-Public A final where it fell to Seton Hall Prep, 2-1. Gill St. Bernard’s finished with a deceiving 12-6-2 record and won its fourth-straight Non-Public B title.
Both teams also had a few holes to fill after losing key pieces to graduation – including goalies – which made Wednesday’s final result that much harder to predict.
“We’ve haven’t played Gill in the last few years so we weren’t entirely sure what we were up against,” Delbarton senior defender Brady Hyland said. “But we know they have a strong team and have done really well in the past, and so we were really ready for anything.”
The first half was a back-and-forth defensive affair that saw Gill St. Bernard’s take five corners, but the Knights struggled to capitalize. Delbarton managed one corner but outshot the Knights 4-2. In the second half the Green Wave started to find its groove on attack, which set up Mazzarella’s goal.
“We saw that we were given space and in the first half we weren’t using that space effectively,” said Mazzarella, who was assisted by junior forward Marcus Arthur. “In the second half it got better and that helped us score.”
Not only was Delbarton able to identify and capitalize on a hole in Gill St. Bernard’s defense, it was also able to turn away a determined Knights’ offense again and again. Hyland, a captain on the backline, refused to let the defense take all of the credit for the first shutout of the season.
“It wasn’t just the backline, it was the center mids, the strikers up top, good pressure,” he said. “I’m playing with two younger kids next to me, juniors, who are incredibly good and the center mids, so it wasn’t just the backline, it was the entire team.”
Delbarton goalie Sebastian Rubio, who played in five games last year as a sophomore, takes over for graduated senior James Anroman. Rubio made five saves on Wednesday in his first shutout of the season and second of his career.
“We did lose a lot of spectacular players but we also have a lot of upcoming spectacular players, and I think that is going to fill the gaps that we need it to fill and it’s going to be a very good season for us,” Mazzarella said.
Gill St. Bernard’s introduced freshman goalie Felipe Zumbado, who took over for four-year starter and graduated senior Mike Dumiec, who had been a cornerstone of the Knights’ four-year Non-Public B title run. Zumbado finished with five saves in his varsity debut.
“I’m proud of them, they played very well. We’re a legit good team, we’re a small school but we’re legit,” Bednarsky said. “We did a schedule and we said we’re going to schedule the big boys. I don’t care what our record is going into the states or counties, we just want to play good teams. (Delbarton is) a perennial power, they’re ranked No. 1, they’re a very, very good team and one kid had a great shot, that was the difference. But we had some good chances too.”
Lauren Knego may be reached at [email protected]. Follow her at @laurenknego
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