Varsity Aces

The Aces Have Moved

We have outgrown our old home and need more space.

You find us at our new address: blogs.northjersey.com/blogs/varsityaces/

For a while, you should be automatically redirected to our new page when you come here. If you have us saved as a bookmark or favorite, you will have to change the link. We look forward to having you stop by.

BS: Schedule change in Bergen

The tournament director of the Bergen County Boys Soccer Tournament called this morning with a minor change in the schedule for the tournament. Westwood and Waldwick basically change places in Friday's play-in games.

Westwood will now play Park Ridge at Ramapo at 5:15 Friday with the winner facing No. 3 Bergen Catholic in Sunday's first round. Waldwick will face New Milford at Waldwick at 6 p.m. Friday with the winner facing No. 2 Cliffside Park.

Click below for the updated schedule:

BS: Bergen Tournament Seeds

The seeds and schedule for the Bergen County Boys Soccer Tournament are out and unbeaten Don Bosco got the top seed.

Defending Group 2 State co-champion Cliffside Park took the second seed, followed by Bergen Catholic and Ramsey. All are unbeaten although Bergen Catholic has a 1-1 tie with Clifton.

Click the link below to see the schedule.

Blown Away

Spent the afternoon up in West Milford for the Highlanders girls soccer game with Wayne Hills. Hope you saw some of the reports on Twitter.

A lot has changed in the last couple of days with regard to the Passaic County girls soccer tournament.

WEISBERG TO GW

Just heard from Glen Rock baseball coach Joe Sutera that pitcher Aaron Weisberg has aacepted a scholarship to George Washington University and will sign his letter of intent next month. Sutera said that the 6-foot-7, 215-pounder has really developed over the offseason while pitching for the New Jersey Cardinals.

    As a junior, Weisberg was 4-3 with a save and a 2.27 ERA. His fastball reaches the uppers 80's, and he had 55 strikeouts in 39 innings pitched.

 

 

Stape's Scene: Tuesday Morning Quarterback

Some random notes from the weekend in which I saw two pivotal football games, St. Joseph's thrilling 17-15 victory over Wayne Hills and Paterson Catholic's 22-12 triumph at Lodi ...

* Wayne Hills' inability to stop St. Joseph on third-and-long in numerous crucial situations hurt the Patriots as much as those two turnovers in the final 3:21 of the first half. Kai Dominguez's biggest catch of the game came on a third-and-16 from the Green Knights' own 39 early in the second quarter. He went up and made a leaping grab for 19 yards, a momentum-changer for sure. Two plays later, Kai the Dominator hooked up with Devin O'Connor for 12 more yards on a third-and-8; and on the next play, O'Connor went up top and found Dominguez in the back of the end zone for a 28-yard score.

Boys Soccer: Passaic County Tournament (Wayne Valley's injustice)

Shout out to Joe Dziezawiec for sending me the updated quarterfinal schedule, which you can see by clicking below. The other two quarterfinal games should be schedued shortly.

All the home teams and higher seeds advanced in the first round, although it's worth noting that last year's co-champs, Passaic Tech, was not one of them.

Also, it appears Wayne Valley was hosed in the seedings for the second year in a row. Unfortunately for the No. 4 Indians, their 4-2 win at No. 2 DePaul occurred AT THE SAME EXACT TIME  the seeding meeting was being held last week. The result would have likely swapped their seedings.

So what does that mean for Wayne Valley? Instead of a potential semifinal against a team like DePaul or Wayne Hills, the Indians will likely have to face No. 1 Clifton, the 17-time champion. Last year, they were unfairly given the No. 9 seed -- despite winning the title in 2007 -- and lost a close game to Clifton in the quarterfinal.  

KICKING MARK

Got a call from kicking guru Pat Sempier to let us know that those four field goals Wallington's Marcin Koc kicked Saturday tied a state single game record held by four other kickers. His 14 points ina game was also the second highest total in a game according to Sempier.

Look for a story on Koc later this week.

Football: More fuel for the fire

Well, you knew this was inevitable.  All it takes is a weekend like this and you can all but guarantee that there will be some hooting and hollering about the public/non-public issue in football.

It begins in Wayne, where the Patriots of Wayne Hills saw their 55-game unbeaten streak end at the hands of St. Joseph Regional, 17-15.  It was the second longest active winning streak in the country behind the 71-game run of Smith Center in Kansas.

SUNDAY PIGSKIN BRUNCH: Why no linemen nominated for AOW?

Why do North Jersey football coaches only nominate quarterbacks, running backs and receivers for The Record's Male Athlete of the Week?

Why not a two-way lineman?

Welcome to the "Sunday Pigskin Brunch," and today we make the case for why a coach should nominate a lineman for AOW if that lineman has a terrific game. (Click below for more.) 

Football: Bergenfield 12, Indian Hills 6

When your last .500 season goes back to 2002 and your last winning record was in 2000, winning close games is no guarantee.  Bergenfield is a classic example, a team that was winless last season and is still a very young team this season.

For many of the Bears, just playing is a new experience, so when they were sitting on a lead late in the fourth quarter against Indian Hills, the game was anything but over.  When they fumbled at the Braves' 8-yard line with 1:46 left, you could sense the "here we go again" coming.

When your last .500 season goes back to 2002 and your last winning record was in 2000, winning close games is no guarantee.  Bergenfield is a classic example, a team that was winless last season and is still a very young team this season.

For many of the Bears, just playing is a new experience, so when they were sitting on a lead late in the fourth quarter against Indian Hills, the game was anything but over.  When they fumbled at the Braves' 8-yard line with 1:46 left, you could sense the "here we go again" coming.

Girls Soccer: Bergen County tournament seeding

Ironically, I spent a few hours of my Thursday evening sitting outside the principal's office at Ramapo High School. No, it wasn't detention. The seeding meeting for the Bergen County girls soccer tournament was going on down the hall in the cafeteria.

There certainly were a few surprises, but the field is set and some intriguing matchups are slated for the first round. For the first time maybe ever, there was no clear No. 1 seed because of IHA's loss to Ridgewood nearly two weeks ago. In fact, I said to Ramapo coach and tournament director Paul Heenehan before the meeting that the only seed I knew would happen was Mahwah at No. 4. That was because IHA, Ridgewood and Northern Highlands all had a legitimate claim to the top spot.

I'll let you know the No. 4 seed after the jump.

Stape's Scene: Sizing Up Hills-Joe's

The game of the year in New Jersey up to this point is on tap for Friday night when St. Joseph visits Wayne Hills looking to snap the state's longest winning streak at 55 games.

Oh, you didn't know this game was going on? Don't mind my sarcasm, considering everyone wants to see how North Jersey's premier public school program over the last decade measures up to what the Green Knights represent on the non-public side of the ledger.

Everyone will make predictions, and as you'll see, many of those will be made along public/non-public lines. Go ahead and tell me I'm pushing an agenda, but the more people I talk to, the more I'm convinced people would rather judge this game on that bias and not what we've seen on the field so far this year.

Volleyball: Northern Valley Tournament

Many of the best teams in North Jersey volleyball will be in one place tomorrow at the Northern Valley Tournament.

The field has been released for the tournament, which will be played starting at 9 a.m. at Demarest.

Here's a look at the pools.

FOOTBALL STATS: Butler's Gergatsoulis tops among kickers

Butler's Dimetrius Gergatsoulis leads North Jersey kickers in scoring with five field goals and nine extra points for 24 total points.

The senior took over the top spot after kicking three field goals in last week's 24-14 victory over Pequannock.

Click below for the kicking scoring leaders list, which is based on box scores reported to The Record:

Girls soccer -- Billy Joel, David Bowie and Ramapo

OK, so what do Billy Joel, David Bowie and the Ramapo girls soccer team have in common? On Thursday at 4 PM, it will be pressure. Joel and Bowie have sung about it. The Ramapo girls will have to deal with it.

The Green Raiders are in a situation where they have to defeat Indian Hills to earn a spot in the Bergen County tournament. If Ramapo loses or even ties, the team won't have the necessary .500 winning percentage to qualify for the tournament. The seeding meeting will take place at Ramapo High School not long after the game against Indian Hills is done, a mere few hundred feet away from the field where Ramapo's fate will be decided.

Boys Soccer: Passaic County Tournament seeds and schedule

We all knew Clifton was going to be No. 1. Seventeen County titles, two straight State final appearances and an undefeated start to 2009 holds a lot of well-deserved weight. So what's noteworthy about the seedings? Last year's co-champ, No. 9 Passaic County Tech, has to start off with a road game against No. 8 Pompton Lakes. Also, DePaul gets the second seed despite never advancing to a County final.

No.'s 3, 4 and 5 -- Wayne Hills, Wayne Valley and Passaic, respectively -- were all ousted by the
quarterfinal last year.

Needless to say, we're going to see a lot of changes.

Below is the entire seedings and schedule.

OPENING ROUND

Saturday, October 3 (Times TBA)

(16) Kennedy) @ (1) Clifton; (15) Hawthorne Christian Academy @ (2) De Paul Catholic; (14) Eastern Christian @ (3) Wayne Hills; (13) Eastside @ (4) Wayne Valley; ; (12) Manchester @ (5) Passaic; (11) Lakeland @ (6) Passaic Valley; (10) Hawthorne  @ (7) West Milford; (9) Passaic County Tech @ (8) Pompton Lakes

QUARTERFINALS

Saturday, October 10 (Times TBA)

All games at site of higher seed

w/o 16/1 vs. w/o 9/8

w/o 12/5 vs. w/o 13/4

w/o 14/3 vs. w/o 11/6

w/o 10/7 vs. w/o 15/2

SEMIFINALS

Saturday, October 17

At De Paul Catholic

FINALS

Saturday, October 24

At Wayne Valley

Girls Soccer Passaic Seeds

The Passaic County girls soccer tournament seeds came out around 9 p.m. tonight. (you could have seen them on twitter). Let's go over it again and I have some first thoughts.

Also, they didnt call to cancel, so I believe I will be a guest on GHT tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 p.m. So check it out.

Scoops: Sowing the Seeds

I have been promising to plug a softball camp coming up in Wayne. Check it out at: www.premiersoftballshowcase.com. And if you have something of note you want us to look into, just send us an email.

We are less than 24 hours away from the seeding meeting for the boys and girls Passaic County soccer tournaments. Let me express my thoughts on how the girls seeds should go. Plus, I want to say I will be a guest on GHT Wednesday talking about the county seeds I'm sure. Tune in at 2:30 p.m.

AROUND THE BCSL OLYMPIC

Three weeks into the season, and two things have become crystal clear about the BCSL Olympic Division. For openers, Hasbrouck Heights is still the team to beat. But, and this is crucial, outside of a rebuilding Ridgefield team, this league is very evenly matched and extremely competitive.

And that means you are going to get a lot of games like ones Bogota and Cresskill played Saturday (21-13 Cresskill) or Friday's Pascack Hills-Emerson slugfest (6-0 Hills). Lots of edge-of the-seat action. Big plays. Just solid high school football.

So, can anyone beat Heights? This week, Park Ridge gets the opportunity.

Stape's Scene: Flashback, Flash Forward

What a weekend of high school football, both in Alabama, which is where I spent three days with Don Bosco, and back here in North Jersey, where several programs put up pivotal performances that could set the stage for even bigger things down the road.

We're heading into what has the potential of being the biggest weekend of the season thus far, but before I go there, let's take a look back and put a bow on Week 3:

Schwitter!!! Schwitter!!! Schwitter!!!

I made sure to thank Tara Schwitter after the IHA senior scored two goals on Friday in IHA's 2-0 victory over Clifton, sparing me the ignominy of writing a third consecutive 0-0 game. Schwitter looked puzzled when I said "Thank you for scoring," which leads me to believe she's not spending nearly enough time reading soccer blogs. Also had the pleasure of meeting her Dad after the game. He was very complimentary, which is always good to hear.

Anyway, I am showing that I am a man of my word. I said I would blog about whoever scored, so here it is. The title for this entry is a direct rip-off of the Matteau!!! Matteau!!! Matteau!!! goal call from when the Rangers went on to win the Stanley Cup. And, no, I'm not a Rangers fan. But I was pretty happy that someone finally scored at a game I was covering. It took approximately 247 minutes. Whew.