RUMSON – Coming off a season that saw them graduate 23 seniors and finish with a 14-6-1 record, 2018 is a season of transition for the Rumson-Fair Haven boys soccer team.
With just two starters returning from last year’s squad and a lot of playing time needing to be filled, second-year head coach Sean Reid is rotating a lot of players and seeing how they respond while they are on the field in game situations.
“We need to polish up on some things,” Reid said. “From penalty box to penalty box, we need to improve defensively inside our box, and we need to improve offensively inside their box. We’ve had plenty of chances and we’ve defended well, but on set pieces on offense and defense, we are a step slow. We are afraid to make a mistake and because we are afraid to make a mistake, we make a mistake.”
Rumson-Fair Haven opened their 2018 slate with a trio of closely contested games, losing 2-1 to Long Branch and Manasquan and 2-0 to Wall. Mason Creekmore scored for Rumson against Manasquan, and the goal against Long Branch was an own goal where the goalie made a save, it deflected off a Green Wave defender and went in.
“Against Long Branch, I felt we were the better side the entire game,” Reid said. “I think we played evenly against Wall, the score was definitely not indicative on how we played. Our goalkeeper make two mistakes. Against Manasquan, I feel was the same result where our goalkeeper made two mistakes. But you can’t blame it all on the goalkeeper because we are not scoring, either.”
Despite those games being close, Reid believes his team should not be allowing those goals and the team is playing better than what the score says. He also noted the team lost four starters to broken bones in their game against Wall.
With top teams such as Holmdel in A Central, it is no secret this is a tough division. But what Reid loves about high school soccer is that you just never know what you are going to see on the field day in and day out.
“High school soccer is so much fun,” Reid said. “I coach a lot of club soccer and unlike club, you never know what you are going to get on any given day with high school. The game is much faster because the kids aren’t as advanced as the club players are so the game becomes much faster. Anything can happen if you get the right bounce and your team defends well and you have a kid who can score, and we have two kids that can score, we just haven’t had the luck yet. Hopefully the luck starts to change for us.”
Senior Thomas Maltabano and freshman Luke Pentikis are the Bulldogs’ top scoring threats. Pentikis played on Reid’s club team, so he was familiar with him as he entered the Rumson program.
Reid looks for three things when he picks his varsity roster: coming in fit, first touch on the ball, and soccer intelligence.
“We want kids who are going to be committed to a very short, but long season and most importantly, we want kids who know how to play the game and can adjust if we do something differently from their club team,” Reid said. “We’re looking for kids who want to buy into a team and want to play the best system that suits our team.”
Any young team is going to go through their ups and downs. But Reid believes if they iron out the rough edges, Rumson can make some noise.
“We are a young team that is disciplined and a team that is good enough to beat anybody if we come to play,” Reid said.
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