The Howell boys soccer season came to end last Friday.
Junior midfielder Arturo Serano and senior midfielder Josh Strickon scored one goal apiece to lift second-seeded Washington Township, No. 20 in the current NJ.com Top 20 rankings, to a 2-1 victory over 10th-seeded Howell in the quarterfinals of the NJSIAA, South Jersey, Group 4 tournament in Washington Township.
Senior midfielder Jason Arakelian and junior midfielder Jake Logar both recorded an assist and junior goalie Mike Pagano had four saves to secure the win for the Minutemen (19-2-1), which has won 12 straight and is 15-0-1 in its last 16 games.
Senior forward Brandon Downey scored and junior goalie Shane McBride registered seven saves for Howell (11-7-1), which lost two of its last three games to end its season.
Washington Township, the three-time defending sectional champion, advanced to the sectional semifinals and will host third-seeded Shawnee (13-3-3) on Tuesday, Nov. 7, where the winner will face the winner between eighth-seeded Atlantic City and fourth-seeded Rancocas Valley on Friday.
“It was a tough game; we knew how good their program is based on the success the past couple of years. The success for us this season was making sure we outworked our opponent and we know if we gave the same effort yesterday that we could keep it close and then at that point you hope that you can create and capitalize on some breaks,” said Howell head coach Rich Yuro, who has been at the helm for the past 27 years.
Yuro loses five seniors entering next season – Downey and four defenders: Stephan Marrone, Adam Jiries (midfielder), Chris Bogdan, and Jacob Hogland.
“These guys were determined to make the state tournament, but besides that, they made a huge impact with the way the team jelled. When you hear about team chemistry, that was a big reason for our success and they were the ones to make that happen,” said Yuro. “The season was very rewarding for the players. They put in a lot of work the past couple years. We had a lot of young kids in the lineup last year and at the end of the season, you could see the improvement and that the players were starting to get it. We were optimistic coming in, but also cautious because the conference is so tough. I give the kids a lot of credit after starting out 0-2-1; you never know how they will respond. And after a couple of sub-par seasons you’re afraid they might have the ‘here we go again’ attitude, but they pulled through and once we started to win a couple of games, they saw that we could get the results if we keep working hard and plugging along. The seniors were a huge reason for our success they were determined from the first days of summer practices to make this a different year. Three of them have been with the varsity since their freshman year and have never made it to the states so that was a big goal for them.”
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