EWING - Mike Ryan scores goals.
Early, late. Left foot, right foot. All alone or in traffic - the Cherokee striker has a knack for finding the back of the net.
He also has a flair for the dramatic.
Ryan scored the last goal of his career in the state championship game Thursday night.
Fittingly, it also was "the best goal I ever scored," Ryan said after leading Cherokee to a 2-1 victory over Bridgewater-Raritan in the Group 4 title game at The College of New Jersey.
Ryan and fellow senior Angelo Dambalas each collected a goal and an assist as Cherokee (25-0-2) became the first team to win back-to-back Group 4 state titles since Shawnee in 1992-93.
"We just have that connection," Ryan said of Dambalas.
Ryan's goal with 5 minutes, 50 seconds to play stunned Bridgewater-Raritan (21-3-1), which had controlled play for most of the second half, and set off a wild celebration among orange-clad Cherokee fans in the visiting bleachers at Lions Stadium.
For the previous 20-25 minutes, Bridgewater-Raritan had dominated possession and generated several scoring chances. The Panthers were led by Sal Vitello, who like Ryan was a senior striker who wore No. 7 and scored his 33d goal of the season.
"Two No. 7s, and both were so dangerous," Cherokee coach Anthony Gallo said.
Vitello gave Bridgewater-Raritan a 1-0 lead in the ninth minute, taking a nice feed from Zak Jones and blasting a left-foot kick into the lower left corner of the net.
Cherokee answered in the 24th minute, as Ryan feathered a pass through to Dambalas, who split two defenders, moved past sliding goalie Alex Kaminetzky, and booted a shot into an open net.
"It was a give-and-go," Ryan said. "We've been working that since we started playing together on a travel team when we were 12 years old."
Ryan had several chances with the score at 1-1. So did Vitello, as each striker seemed poised to put his team in front.
"Cherokee has a great team," Bridgewater-Raritan coach Rick Szeles said. "The fact that we scored on them was a positive for us. I think we could have scored a couple more, but they could have scored a couple more on us, too."
Cherokee goalie Barry Fitzgerald made four saves and directed a defense anchored by Chris Crowley, Jon Tarzy and Billy Lobosco, among others.
"We came in this whole season with a chip on our shoulder because everyone was gunning for us," Fitzgerald said. "We just weren't going to be denied. This whole season was like a miracle."
