Despite Double Overtime, Cranford Boys Soccer Ties Scotch Plains

Scotch Plains-Fanwood (16-1-2) and Cranford (18-0-2) battled to a thrilling 1-1 double-overtime tie before a big crowd.

Nick Pace scored early in the first half, and Scotch Plains-Fanwood’s Matt Greaney scored in the second half. That was it. Scotch Plains-Fanwood had 23 shots to Cranford’s 10, but the Cougars’ standout senior goalie Scott Boyer and a sturdy defense kept the Raiders at one.

The game was Cranford’s final regular-season contest. Saturday, the Cougars play Union in the Union County Tournament semifinals at 5 p.m. at Arthur L. Johnson High School in Clark. The first game at 3 p.m. pits Scotch Plains-Fanwood and Westfield.

Thursday night’s game could have been the first of three between Cranford and Scotch Plains-Fanwood. Both are also in the North 2 Group III playoff field.

"We know from here on out every game will be big, including this one,’’ said Boyer, who made several strong saves, including one on Mike DelSordi in the first overtime. ”Those guys can really shoot.’’

“When it comes down to these Scotch Plains-Cranford games you know the kids will come into them hard, you know it’s going to be a battle,’’ Pace said.

Cranford coach Mike Curci mused that he nor Scotch Plains-Fanwood’s Tom Breznitsky might have not been thrilled about having such a tough game 48 hours before a county semifinal.

"They are tough, they are fast, they’re quick and so are we,’’ Curci said. ”It was back and forth the entire game. I thought we had the better of the play in the overtime with a couple of real good chances and their keeper came up huge. I know my boys are disappointed, but I told them it’s a big rivalry, but it’s a regular season game. We have to come out and play hard against Union and we have the states next week. The silver lining is we are still unbeaten at this point. We’ll take something out of this.’’

Scotch Plains-Fanwood took a lot of long shots.

"We were much more busy tonight than we have been in a long time,’’ Curci said. "I have seen Scotch Plains several times this year and they re playing well right now. Anytime Cranford and Scotch Plains get together there’s that extra incentive. And for these teams for better or for worse to go at it this hard two days before the county probably isn’t what me or Brez had in mind. But as you can see neither of us we’re going to give it up. It’s the way we expect our teams to play.’’

The game, as Boyer referred to, was the first of a stretch of big ones. Cranford plays host to Carteret Tuesday at 2 p.m. in a North 2 Group III playoff game.