Boys Soccer: Star Ledger awards Player, Team, and Coach of the Year honors

by | Dec 4, 2023

North Jersey Interscholastic Conference

Player of the Year:

Andrew Armstrong, Pompton Lakes

The Dayton-bound Armstrong finished the season as the state’s leading scorer with 37 goals, and that’s even after the Cardinals got bounced in the quarterfinals of the North 1, Group 2 state tournament, giving other players additional games to catch him, though none did.

He scored in 16 of Pompton Lakes’ 19 games played this season with 13 multi-goal games and five hat tricks this season and finished his career with 88 goals, a program record for both goals in a season and in his career. Armstrong’s nose for the goal was heightened by the fact he was frequently man-marked or double team and almost always the focus of the other team’s defense, but he still found a way to score.

In addition to his scoring prowess, Armstrong also dished out 11 assists and finished his career with 39 helpers as well, showing he wasn’t afraid to look and find other options on the Cardinals and be selfless when he needed to.

Team of the Year:

Garfield

The Boilermakers were one of the state’s most dominant teams all season on both sides of the ball. When the dust settled and the season came to an end, the southern Bergen County school hoisted a Group 3 state crown and finished the year ranked No. 13 in the final NJ.com Top 20, their first end of season ranking in well over a decade.

Led by first-year coach Piotr Sala, the Boilermakers steamrolled the NJIC and beyond, finishing with a 20-1 record and the state’s top marks in goals scored (94), goal differential (+79) while finishing third in goals per game and only two schools — Group 2 champs and the state’s No. 2 ranked team in Ramsey and Group 4 champs and No. 4 ranked Princeton — finished with more wins this season than Garfield.

They had four players — Brenden Baeza (25), Leland Gonzalez (16), Krystian Nitek (10) and Kristian Ristevski (10) — finish the season with double digit goals, while Gonzalez (16), Johannes Alvarez (17) and Eric Zawada (10) each had double digit assists as well.

Coach of the Year:

Daniel Sanchez, Manchester Regional

In the ninth year leading his alma mater, Sanchez entered this year with a career head coaching record of 21-107-7. Of those 107 losses, 55 were shutouts and the Falcons went winless two seasons ago.

But this season was unlike any other in the last decade plus at the North Haledon-based school. By starting the season 1-0, the Falcons were officially over .500 at any point in any season since before Sanchez took over and by finishing the season at 9-8-1, it was the school’s first season finishing over .500 since Sanchez’s playing days well over 15 years ago.

The nine wins this season were the most in Sanchez’s tenure, surpassing his previous career high of seven wins, set last year. The Falcons also advanced in the Passaic County tournament for the first time since Sanchez’s playing days as well, thanks to a shootout victory over Passaic Valley on their home turf.

Other Storylines

  • In the program’s 10th year in existence, Wood-Ridge (13-8-1) won its 100th game in program history on Oct. 14 with a 5-2 win at home over Bayonne in a game that also marked the 100th career victory for coach Alberico De Pierro, whose career record sits at 103-87-1 through 10 seasons. The Blue Devils also had two of the conference’s top offensive players this year in Salvatore Catanzaro (29 goals, three assists) and Brian Harasek (17 goals, 14 assists) while sophomore netminder Chase LoPresti posted 10 shutouts and made 87 saves.

  • While Waldwick (16-4) fell short of making the Group 1 final for the third year in a row, the Warriors did have one of the state’s best scorers in junior JJ Ruehlemann, who was one of just seven 30-plus goal scorers this season as he led Bergen County in goals with 31, while adding 13 assists as well. He had nine multi-goal games, registering a hat trick or better in six of those games.

  • In addition to Waldwick and Garfield, the NJIC was well represented in section finals as well, with Rutherford (10-6-2) making the section final in North 2, Group 2 and North Arlington (13-8) making it in North 2, Group 1. For Rutherford, it was the Bulldogs’ first section final berth since before 2010. In North Arlington’s case, it was the Vikings’ first section final berth under first-year coach Pedro Martinez and first overall since 2015.