10/7/2010 - H/W/S Tourney Under Way
Years from now when someone checks the Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex Athletic Association website to see who won the field hockey crown in 2009, they will see there were co-champs.
They will see that Warren Hills from Warren County and Sussex County power Newton shared the title that year. But there is no mention as to why.
One might assume the two titans battled to a great draw in a game that was one for the ages. Unfortunately, there is no great back story, unless you consider that the H/W/S needed to work out some kinks in its field hockey tourney a compelling tale.
Yes, there were co-champs last year and thanks to Mother Nature not cooperating and some poor planning.
The tourney was plagued by bad weather with games being bounced around and sites being changed. The other problem was the association did not consider that the field hockey state tournament starts earlier than soccer because in field hockey there is a Tournament of Champions.
Both of the aforementioned factors were the reasons why Warren Hills and Newton could not settle which school was the best in the tri-county area on the field. Hills made a run to the Group 3 final and the two schools could never find a date that worked for both teams so co-champs were declared.
It was shame, but I chalked it up to the rushed nature of the formation of the H/W/S and I saw no need to bash anyone. But I mentioned last year that the H/W/S should address the issue and it did this year.
The tourney got under way last weekend with No. 7 Sparta doing a nice job in picking up a win over tenth-seeded North Warren 3-1. No. 9 Delaware Valley also advanced with a 4-0 win over No. 8 Lenape Valley.
The tournament started a week earlier than last year so there should not be any interference with states unless we run into some bad weather. So a good job by the H/W/S to fix the issue.
This weekend’s games are as follows at the site of the higher seed at 2 p.m. No 1 Voorhees will host Delaware Valley; No. 5 North Hunterdon will travel to No. 4 Vernon; No. 6 Kittatinny will take on No. 3 Phillipsburg; No. 2 High Point will host No. 7 South Hunterdon; Sparta will do battle with No. 2 Warren Hills; in a very interesting matchup No. 6 Hackettstown will face No. 3 Wallkill Valley; No. 4 Belvidere will host No. 5 Pope John and top-seeded Newton will host No. 9 Hunterdon Central.
The tourney quarterfinals will be held Oct. 16 with the semifinals set for Oct. 20, all at the highest reaming seed left. The championship game will be Oct. 23 at Pope John.
Newton is off to a great start with a win over state-power Madison, but the Braves will need to top Warren Hills most likely in the semifinals to advance to the championship tilt. So we will probably get to see the two schools finally clash, but it won’t be for all the marbles.
Voorhees should come out of the top half of the bracket. The Vikings under Beth Stocker are a powerhouse and own a win over Hills. Although, you can never count out Bev Keur and her High Point Wildcats in a big game.
The way the Wildcats are playing this year, they have the capability of knocking off the Vikings. That would be a great game.
So who is going to win? I’m going with the Newton Braves and coach Lisa Bechtel. The win over Madison at Madison really turned a lot of heads around the state. Behind the Mosner twins, Harley McMahon and Emily Burd, I think the Braves get it done.
The boys and girls soccer H/W/S pairings were released this week and those two tourneys should definitely be entertaining.
High Point is the defending champ on the girls side, while North Hunterdon topped Newton in the boys final last year.
Here are the boys pairings with the preliminary games starting Saturday. No. 8 High Point at No. 9 Warren Hills winner at No. 1 North Hunterdon; No. 5 Hackettstown at No. 4 Hopatcong; No. 6 Vernon at No. 3 Delaware Valley; No. 10 Sussex Tech at No. 7 Voorhees winner at No. 2 Sparta; No. 9 Lenape Valley at No. 8 Belvidere winner at top-seeded Pope John; No. 5 Kittatinny at No. 4 North Warren; No. 6 P-Burg at No. 3 Newton; and No. 7 Wallkill Valley at No. 3 Hunterdon Central.
The first-round will be held Oct. 16 at the higher seed, quarterfinals Oct. 23 and semifinals Oct. 27 at the higher seed. The final will be held at Hackettstown on Oct. 30.
North Hunterdon looks to be the favorite again, but defensive-minded Sparta and its two studs, defender Nick DiSomma and goalie Alex Altieri, could present a big challenge to the Lions in their quest to repeat.
Pope John will have its hands full with Hunterdon Central on the other half of the bracket. There also two intriguing matchups in the first round with Hopatcong and Hackettstown and Kittatinny and North Warren.
Hopatcong and Hackettstown are in the Freedom Division of the NJAC and have not played yet as of this writing, so that should be a good one. And North Warren-Kittatinny should be a battle with overtime written all over it.
And the winner? I like Pope John. The Lions find ways to win or tie and that is important in tourney play. The Pope knocked off Vernon with 15 seconds left in the game the other day on a Casey Ferriola goal in its 2-1 win over Vernon.
Its only losses are to state-power Montville and Red Bank Catholic. Plus, the Lions have never had any issue facing bigger teams as their wins over Pingry the last few years demonstrate.
The girls tourney also gets under way this weekend and follows the same times and dates as the boys with the final at Hackettstown as well on Oct. 30.
The pairings are as follows: No. 9 P-Burg at No. 8 Hopatcong winner at No. 1 Hunterdon Central; No. 5 Delaware Valley at No. 4 Pope John; No. 6 Sparta at No. 3 Belvidere; No. 10 Lenape Valley at No. 7 North Warren winner to face No. 2 Kittatinny; No. 7 Wallkill Valley at No. 2 North Hunterdon; No. 6 Voorhees at No. 3 High Point; No. 5 Newton at No. 4 Hackettstown; No. 9 Sussex Tech at No. 8 Warren Hills winner to play top-seeded Vernon.
The girls tourney is pretty open as High Point won this tourney as a low seed last year shocking Hunterdon Central 2-0.
Vernon and HC are definitely the favorites but don’t sleep on Hackettstown. The Tigers I feel are much better than a four-seed, so that is a tough draw for Newton. I hope the Tigers’ fellow H/W coaches didn’t show bias against them because they play in the Freedom Division with all Sussex teams.
So in keeping with my Sussex-centric picks, I will go with Vernon to win it all.
All right, you have the information, now go out and enjoy the games.
That’s it for now, see you on the sidelines.
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