Bergen County girls soccer champion is....

IHA coach Steve Silver put on a jacket he hadn't worn in close to a year on Saturday. His first sign that it would be a good day came when he reached into the pocket and came out with a nice amount of money.

His second sign it would be a good day came when Jen Orlando headed in a corner kick from her sister, Nicole Orlando, in the 26th minute. That goal stood up thanks to some tough defense by the Blue Eagles and also because IHA never stopped attacking, even if the final score remained 1-0.

Sure, there were some unlucky moments, such as when IHA hit the crossbar twice in the first half, but Silver eventually could have used that newfound old money on a bottle of champagne -- or sparkling cider -- to toast IHA's fourth Bergen County title. It was the first outright title for the Blue Eagles since 2000. IHA last won in 2005, when it was co-champions with Northern Highlands.

The Blue Eagles certainly played like the No. 1 seed and the No. 1 team in the country. They stymied No. 2 seed Northern Highlands and didn't allow the Highlanders a shot on goal until the 31st minute. IHA was relentless in its attack and played with the mentality of a boa constrictor squeezing the life out of its prey. Granted, Northern Highlands was playing without forward Danielle Schulmann, but the Highlanders have been doing that for weeks now. Schulmann may have made a difference in a one-goal game, but IHA defenders Jaclyn Wood, Julianna Griego, Ashley Clarke and Erin McGovern all would have been looking to mark her.

There is no rest for either team, even though Sunday will be an off day. IHA will face Pingry on Monday in the North A State semifinals. The game is a rematch of last season's North A final, won by Pingry. Northern Highlands, meanwhile, will face upstart Wayne Hills in the semifinals of the North 1 Group 3 State tournament on Monday.

It seems like it would be a good idea to talk about moving the Bergen Tournament up a week so as not to have the final be smack dab in the middle of the State quarterfinals and semifinals. That seems pretty counterproductive the way it is, and it puts too much of a demand on the players to play big game after big game after big game in such a short span of time.

By the way, look for video of the game and my first-ever videocast on the old website. I did a quick interview with Jen Orlando while eight of her teammates all told her to "say my name." We had to do a second take because Jen was cracking up so much. Meanwhile, I was probably something like Roger Dorn in the American Express commercial from the movie Major League. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.

Comments

[jay greco]

Tim,

I'm going to guess the final score was 1-0. You never reported the actual score of the game. I guess I should surmise that IHA scored the only goal because you said it stood up, but somewhere in your post (probably in the first paragraph) you should report the final score.