Nutley head boys soccer coach Sal Melillo has never been afraid to challenge his team with its out of conference schedule.
“I mean anything can happen on any given day,” said Melillo. “And as long as they just keep putting the same thing out there, there’s no challenge too great. You just keep putting good opponents out there and we will just keep living up to the challenge.”
Facing its first great challenge of the season on Saturday night at Kearny, Melillo’s Maroon Raiders, rose to the occasion in a big way.
Despite being issued a red card early in the first half and playing a man-down for nearly 90 minutes, Nutley rallied from a two goal deficit to tie Kearny, 2-2, at Harvey Field. Following the result, the Raiders are now 4-0-1 on the young season.
In a night full of eye-opening performances, arguably the biggest was from the Raiders’ freshman goalkeeper Nicolas Oramas, who made 16 saves on Saturday. Through five games, Oramas has stopped 41 shots and looked every bit the part of a seasoned veteran.
“From the minute I put him on the field for our first game, he’s been our safety blanket back there. Saturday proved it tenfold,” Melillo said. “He’s 5-foot-7 or 5-foot-8, but he plays like he’s 6-foot-4 and carries himself like he’s 35 years old.”
Senior Cameron Anderson is the backup and has appeared in three games.
In front of them is a veteran, all-senior backline, led by center backs Mark Mattiazzi, a four-year starter, and Patrick Sceppaguercio, a three-year starter. Adrian Rodriguez is a three-year starter at right back, while left back is currently shared by Jayden Bollander and Kaiden Cerniglia-Rapavi. Sophomore Joseph DelTufo is a talented back looking to break through in the rotation on defense, but is currently playing multiple positions in the meantime.
Junior Finn Carney and sophomore Dominic Bollander serve as the two starting holding midfielders in Nutley’s 4-3-3 formation.
Junior Tsotne “Sammy” Buzariashvili is the starter at center midfielder. Buzariashvili has scored two goals this season, including the first goal in Saturday’s comeback. Freshman Sreeyan Bose, who scored the tying goal against Kearny has also seen time at the position early on. Freshman Nathan Zarizghi and sophomores Juan Cabrejos and DelTufo have seen meaningful minutes as well.
Up top, Nutley received a massive boost when Sebastian Henao returned to play high school soccer after playing MLS Next last year. The junior already has five goals and an assist. Henao’s arrival, combined with returning starters Sebastian Stroczan (four goals, two assists) and Anthony Navarro (two goals, four assists) have given the Raiders a dangerous trio on the attack.
“They are interchangeable with their positions so it is a true three-headed monster,” said Melillo. “They’re so different in their physical traits, but the three of them are so gifted and any of the three can do the same thing that the other one does.”
Senior Jorge Emilio Zurita Ganity has been seeing time up top in reserve as well as Bose.
Seniors Christopher Petit-Frere, Diego Sanchez and Liam Schoch, as well as sophomore Mikhail Mihalov and freshman Sebastian Vieira are also competing to earn time.
Nutley knows it was the start of one its most challenging weeks in recent memory. Nutley was set to host West Essex, which plays in a higher division within the Super Essex Conference on Monday. On Thursday, it travels to Verona for first place in the SEC’s Colonial Division. Then, on Friday, Nutley goes on the road to face a Seton Hall Prep team currently ranked sixth in the state.
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Jason Bernstein | Observer Sports Writer
Jason Bernstein joined The Observer as its sports writer in March 2022, following the retirement of Jim Hague. He has a wealth of sports-writing experience, including for NJ Advance Media (nj.com, The Jersey Journal, The Star-Ledger.)