Harrison boys soccer returns to the Hudson County final

In recent years, the Hudson County Tournament has proven to be successful in helping Harrison prepare for the upcoming state tournament. While certainly valuable, it was an experience that usually ended in the semifinals for the Blue Tide.

This year’s county tournament has brought so much more to the Blue Tide.

For the first time since 2021, Harrison is heading to the Hudson County final as the third-seeded Blue Tide defeated second-seeded Union City, 3-2, on Saturday.

It is Harrison’s fifth trip to the final since the tournament started in 2009. The victory earns Harrison a trip to Sports Illustrated Stadium on Oct. 28 when it faces off against two-time reigning county champion St. Peter’s Prep, ranked No. 2 in the state by NJ.com, at 7:30 p.m.

“One of the things we were saying to them this whole week was let’s win this semifinal game,” Harrison head coach Mike Rusek said. “We haven’t done it for a few years, and you always have an excuse as to why something goes wrong, but when it’s all said and done we’ve always been a good contender in (the semifinals), but we did not win it.

“We said to them, no excuses this time around, let’s just get on a bus and go win a hard away game and earn the right to be in that county final. I’m really proud of our team for doing that.”

Junior Ezequiel Soto had two goals and an assist in the win. The junior snapped a 2-2 tie in the 73rd minute when he scored off a feed from Kiandry Aban.

Soto, who moved to Harrison from South America over the summer, has been on a torrid scoring pace in recent days, racking up five goals and seven assists in the past five games, all won by the Blue Tide.

“I think it took him the month of September to just figure everything out. And now that he’s got things figured out, we’re really seeing just how solid he is,” said Rusek. “He’s just a true center forward and we haven’t had that. I don’t know if we’ve ever had anyone like him.”

For the season, Soto has 16 goals and nine assists, while also generating significant defensive attention that has opened up space for others such as Aban, Pedro Barreto Reis and Samuel DeSouza.

Aban, who has a team-high 18 goals, assisted on both of Soto’s goals. Barreto Reis, one of Harrison’s captains, gave the Blue Tide a 1-0 lead in the 20th minute when he scored his 14th goal of the season.

In the other boys semifinal, Kearny in the rare position of underdog, gave St. Peter’s Prep all it could handle before falling in a double-overtime heartbreaker, 3-2. Colin McKenna scored in the 39th minute, giving the Kardinals a lead it held for nearly 30 minutes before Quentin Thomas evened the score for St. Peter’s Prep on a penalty kick.

Anthony Bautsita gave the Marauders the lead with a goal in the 76th minute, but Kearny answered right back just seconds later with a goal by Justin Rivadeneyra Madrid.

Bautista, one of the state’s leading goal scorers, delivered the game winner when he turned the corner and slid a shot inside the lower-left corner of the net in the 95th minute.

Kearny gets another crack at the Marauders in a regular season home game on Monday night, after The Observer’s deadline.

On the girls side, Kearny endured a similar heartbreak to a familiar rival as it fell to top-seeded Bayonne, 2-1, in double overtime.

Trailing 1-0 in the second half, Monmouth-bound star Keala Cicchino scored the tying goal for Kearny, then had multiple strong chances to bury a go-ahead goal. Kali Dux-O’Sullivan thwarted those chances, making 16 saves before Sheila O’Neill’s winning goal on a counter in the 96th minute.

In the other semifinal, Harrison’s bid for its first final appearance fell short as second-seeded Hoboken rolled to a 6-0 victory behind two goals and three assists from Wren Napolitani.

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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.