EWING - Giuseppe DeLuca tripped over his words for a second, trying to find perspective at a moment when it was painfully difficult to do so.
"I don't know," DeLuca said after his soccer team's 3-1 loss to Ramapo in Thursday night's NJSIAA Group 3 championship game at the College of New Jersey. "We thought it was our year. I don't know what to say. But I'm keeping my head held high. We had a great season. I'll never forget it."
DeLuca netted his team's only goal with 7 minutes, 57 seconds left. The goal was the 55th of his high school career and established a Timber Creek career record in goals. It gave DeLuca one more goal than fellow senior Jeff Morgan.
The record is symbolic of Timber Creek's season, one in which the Chargers made history and a deep and talented senior class established itself as the best the program has had.
"It's an absolute positive to even be here," Timber Creek coach Sean Ortzman said. "These guys poured everything they had into this season, and it was a fun ride.
"We had 15 seniors, and they were the heart and soul of this team."
Both Morgan and DeLuca had numerous chances in a tightly called game, particularly right after Ramapo (22-1) took a 1-0 lead in the ninth minute. The first goal was a converted penalty kick by James Buonavita, who got the chance after Timber Creek (19-4-3) was called for tripping in the box.
"Giving up a PK nine minutes in, when he was apparently offsides, is hard to swallow," Ortzman said. "We tried to adjust after that. We had a lot of pressure and a lot of shots, but we were just unlucky."
Ortzman also took issue with the number of calls in the game. There were more than 40 whistles, which served only to disrupt the flow of the usually high-pressure, speedy Chargers offense.
Still, two minutes after the first score, Morgan had a solid shot on goal from about 30 yards. Three restarts over the next 10 minutes nearly led to Timber Creek netting the equalizer.
Instead, with 16:06 left in the first half, Nick Caruso converted a Brandon Alverado restart kick, putting his team up by 2-0.
Timber Creek was again the aggressor to start the second half, and again was given numerous restarts, each with minimal effect.
In one of Ramapo's first established possessions of the second half, James Ortiz connected with Chris Nash, who scored on a wide-open look about 10 yards in front of the center of the net. The goal, with 24:02 left, put Ramapo up by 3-0.
But Timber Creek continued to play the aggressor for the rest of the game, and nearly netted a second goal minutes after DeLuca's score.
"We played our best soccer down the stretch," Morgan said. "We got to where we wanted to be, we won our first sectional title, and we're happy with the season."
Timber Creek 0 1 – 1
Ramapo 2 1 – 3
Goals: TC-Giuseppe DeLuca; R-James Buonavita, Sean Etheridge, Chris Nash.
Saves: TC-Andrew Garcia 7; R-Will Shiel 5.
Contact Chris Melchiorre at rallysports@phillynews.com.
