This one wasn't as easy, but after a busy week -- one in which the Cranford boys soccer team eliminated defending Union County Tournament champion Elizabeth and beat the Minutemen in a regular-season game -- it was good enough.
The Cougars tied a program record for wins when they beat Dayton 2-0 Tuesday at Memorial Field to raise their season record to 16-0.
Goalie Scott Boyer recorded his 10th shutout as captain Patrick Kaskiew and leading scorer Patrick Hartnett scored late first half goals. Hartnett has 17 goals.
"We're coming off three big games, and I can give that excuse, but you know we did what we had to do and the real good teams get the job done even when they are not necessarily playing their best soccer,'' said coach Mike Curci.
The Cougars played in spurts. They pushed it in the first and second halves but didn't gain control until early on in the second half.
"I know the boys wanted to get the shutout," said Curci.
Boyer got some work. He stopped a couple of one-on-one shots one in the second half by Georgie Eristavi.
"It wasn't our best game, but we came off of three big games last week,'' said Boyer. "It wasn't pretty but we got it done. Nothing is easy against these teams. Dayton surprised us. They were pretty good. They had a couple of big players, but our defense came up big as usual.''
Kaskiw scored at 20:03 off a corner kick that beat Bulldog keeper Brandon Moss.
"I pushed up on the corner kick and a kid [missed] it and I just put it in the side. It was off their deflection,'' Kaskiw said. "I thought we were looking ahead too much. But you have to take it one step at a time.''
Next up is Plainfield Wednesday afternoon at Plainfield.
The Cougars will play Union Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Union County Tournament semifinal at A.L. Johnson in Clark.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
